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State, BLM lease sales set for Dec. 7 Oil & gas lease sales cover adjacent areas in state, National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska; 14.7 million state acres, 3 million federal Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
In September the Alaska Department of Natural Resources delayed the state’s fall areawide oil and gas lease sales from Oct. 26 to Dec. 7 to allow potential bidders more time to do due diligence and to allow the state the opportunity to add acreage from expired leases.
The Bureau of Land Management was already planning a lease sale in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and said Oct. 28 that its NPR-A oil and gas would be held the same day as the state’s sale.
The state Division of Oil and Gas will open bids beginning at 9 a.m. on Dec. 7 in the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage. Bids for BLM’s NPR-A sale will be opened at 1 p.m. in the Denali Room at the Anchorage Federal Building.
DNR called it “a rare opportunity” for investors “to bid on the same day for adjacent state and federal oil and gas leases on the North Slope.”
The department said its North Slope and North Slope Foothills sales include tracts adjacent to federal tracts available at the BLM lease sale, giving a bidder the potential to pick up adjacent acreage on state and federal lands, thus gaining more flexibility in accessing oil and gas pools.
“This should greatly improve a company’s ability to explore and develop both state and federal acreage,” DNR Commissioner Dan Sullivan said in an Oct. 28 statement. He said the state has been coordinating with the federal government on the lease sale dates “in the hope that working together will enhance opportunities for successful state and federal oil and gas lease sales.”
Two known prospects DNR cited two known prospects, Umiat and Gubik, which straddle state land and NPR-A, but said “much of the acreage along the state-federal border has seen minimal exploration in recent years,” and said it is offering those lands at minimum royalty rates and rental rates to entice interest.
DNR noted that according to a 2005 U.S. Geological Survey assessment there are 19 oil plays straddling state and NPR-A acreage, 17 of which are included in the BLM sale area.
The state’s lease sale includes nearly 15 million acres.
While BLM is offering selected tracts, the state is offering unleased acreage in its sales areas under its areawide leasing program.
BLM sale area BLM is offering tracts 283 tracts, some 3 million acres, in Northeast and Northwest NPR-A, including 178 tracts, 1.8 million acres, in Northeast NPR-A and 105 tracts, 1.2 million acres, in Northwest NPR-A.
BLM said in an Oct. 28 statement that there are currently 169 oil and gas leases in NPR-A totaling 1,361,105 acres in the Northeast and Northwest planning areas of NPR-A.
BLM-Alaska State Director Bud Cribley called NPR-A energy resources “essential to meeting our nation’s energy demands” and said those resources would “enhance domestic energy production and decrease dependency on foreign oil sources.”
“I believe it is possible to develop oil and gas resources, while protecting important surface and subsistence resources,” Cribley said in BLM’s Oct. 28 release. He said the oil and gas lease sale reflects BLM’s “mission to balance the protection of the natural resources and rural subsistence with the nation’s need for oil and gas development within the NPR-A.”
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