Seven bidding groups placed 47 bids on 40 tracts at the state of Alaska's second areawide North Slope lease sale Feb. 24 in Anchorage. 

Bidding was led by ARCO Alaska Inc., bidding by itself and with Chevron U.S.A. Inc. BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. did not bid. 

The preliminary high bid total was $2,596,838.40 for an estimated 178,000 acres. But, said Ken Boyd, director of the Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas, final title work for areawide sales is done after the bids are opened. Because actual tract size will be a little smaller than estimated tract size, and because bids are an amount per acre, the total sale amount will be a little smaller. 

ARCO Alaska took 16 tracks in 50/50 partnership with Chevron for more than $1.75 million. Bidding by itself, ARCO Alaska took eight tracts for $428,160. Combined, ARCO accounted for $1.3 million, 50 percent of total high bonus bids. Chevron's share of the joint bids, more than $875,000, made it the second highest bidder. Other successful bidders included a partnership of J. Bachner and K. Forsgren; Anadarko Petroleum Corp.; Cliff Burglin; James W. White and James A. White. 

Mike Richter, ARCO Alaska vice president of exploration and land, told PNA after the sale that the acreage the company acquired was all in the west, "so we're filling in what we picked up last time." ARCO also accounted for 50 percent of the preliminary bid total at the first North Slope areawide sale, and holds the largest state oil and gas lease acreage position, followed by BP Exploration (Alaska). 

Asked why BP Exploration (Alaska) did not bid at the sale, BP spokesman Paul Laird told PNA: "We've been pretty aggressive in a number of lease sales over the past few years, and feel we've accumulated enough of a prospect inventory that we weren't interested in building it up at this point. And there wasn't anything in this sale that we are greatly interested in."