The Beaufort Sea areawide drew 57 bids on 42 tracts, 107,189 acres.

The federal Bureau of Land Management drew bids on seven National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska tracts, 66,650 acres, while the state's Foothills areawide only drew bids on two tracts, 10,120 acres.

Dollar volumes were impressive, $54.5 million for the state's North Slope areawide, $5 million for the Beaufort Sea sale, $59.7 for the three state sales combined.

Caelus Alaska Exploration, new to the state as the operator at Oooguruk, was apparent high bidder on 263,674 acres in the North Slope sale, 50 percent of the acreage receiving bids in that sale, and apparent high bidder on 59,120 acres in the Beaufort Sea sale, 55 percent of the acreage receiving bids in that sale, for combined acreage of 322,795 acres and more than $15 million in bids.

Armstrong affiliate 70 & 148 LLC, which held some 144,639 acres of state oil and gas leases prior to the sale, was apparent high bidder on 179,832 acres, with $38.3 million in apparent high bids across both the sales, the highest bid total of any company.

The third largest bidder in the sales - participating only in the North Slope sale - was Burgundy Xploration of Houston, which was apparent high bidder on 90,720 acres for which it bid $2.59 million.

The federal Bureau of Land Management National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska lease sale drew three bidders and a total of $658,978.20 in bids on seven tracts, some 66,650 acres.

- KRISTEN NELSON