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Near-record acreage sold at $10.7 million North Slope sale
Kristen Nelson PNA News Editor
The state of Alaska received 158 bids on 149 onshore tracts in its third North Slope areawide sale Nov. 15, and $10,679,136 in apparent high bids on a near record amount of land, 713,600 acres, topped only once in state lease sale history.
Combined with $440,122,40 received in the first state's first Beaufort Sea areawide sale, also held Nov. 15, apparent high bids for the day totaled $11,119,258.40.
In the North Slope sale the average high bonus bid was $14.97 an acre. The highest bid, and the highest bid per acre, was $669,024, $116.15 an acre, bid by the dominant bidding group at the sale: Phillips Alaska Inc. (37.5 percent), AEC Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. (32.5 percent) and Chevron USA (30 percent), for tract 577 in the block of tracts which the Phillips-AEC-Anadarko bidding group won some 25 miles southeast of Prudhoe Bay. Of tracts which drew bids of more than $20 an acre, 16 are in this group of 32 tracts, five are tracts won by BP — also southeast of the Prudhoe Bay unit, but only a few miles inland between Prudhoe Bay and Foggy Island Bay. On the west side of the sale, AVCG LLC paid $30 and $31 an acre for two tracts, one in the bend of the Colville River and one south of Alpine east of the Colville bend. Phillips, AEC, Chevron dominate The Phillips-AEC-Chevron bidding group dominated the North Slope sale with $5,788,396.80 in high bids (32 tracts), 54.2 percent of total high bids.
Second was the bidding group of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (66 2/3 percent) and AEC Oil & Gas (33 1/3 percent), which had $1,454,668.80 in high bids (42 tracts), 13.62 percent of total high bids.
BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., bidding by itself, was third, with $881,894.40 (13 tracts), 8.26 percent of total high bids.
Fourth among the bidding groups was AVCG LLC, with $754,560 in high bids (13 tracts), 7.07 percent of total high bids.
Phillips Alaska, bidding by itself, was fifth, with $412,588.80 in high bids (seven tracts), 3.86 percent of total high bids.
Anadarko, bidding by itself, was sixth, with $382,649.60 (15 tracts), 3.58 percent of total high bids.
A bidder identified as “3793885 Canada Ltd.” was seventh with $273,145.60 (eight tracts), 2.56 percent of total high bids.
A bidding group of BP (56 percent) and Chevron (44 percent) was eighth, with $230,515.20 (four tracts), 2.16 percent of total high bids.
A bidding group of Phillips (58.4649 percent) and BP (41.5351 percent) was ninth, with $176,665.60 (four tracts), 1.65 percent of total high bids.
AEC Oil & Gas, bidding by itself, was 10th with $115,603.20 (three tracts), 1.08 percent of total high bids.
Five bidders and bidding groups each accounted for less than 1 percent of total high bids: A bidding group of J. Andrew Bachner (90 percent) and Keith Forsgren (10 percent) took three tracts for $85,824. Daniel K. Donkel took three tracts for $38,553.60. A bidding group of Richard Wagner, D. Gilbertson and N. Stepovich took one tract for $32,179.20. R3 Exploration Corp. took one tract for $25,996.80. A bidding group of Monte Allen (50 percent) and Daniel K. Donkel (50 percent) took two tracts for $25,894.40. Phillips invests $2.7 million As companies, Phillips and AEC spent the most money at the North Slope areawide sale, followed by Chevron, Anadarko, BP and AVCG.
Bidding by itself and in two bidding groups, Phillips total was $2,686,516.31, 25.16 percent of the bids, for all or part of 43 tracts.
AEC Oil & Gas's share, bidding by itself and with two bidding groups, was $2,481,673.27, 23.24 percent of total high bids.
Chevron participated in two bidding groups and its share was $1,837,945.73, 17.21 percent of total high bids.
Most of the tracts for which the Phillips, AEC and Chevron group bid the most — including the highest priced per acre tract in the sale — are in a group of 24 tracts the companies acquired in a block on both sides of the Kadleroshilik River ranging some 20 to 40 miles south and southeast of Prudhoe Bay. A second group of tracts spreads out to the east of this block, and also includes some higher-priced tracts. The higher-priced tracts won by the Phillips-AEC-Chevron bidding group ranged from $20.37 an acre to $116.15 an acre. Minimum bid for the sale was $5 an acre and the average bid per acre was $14.97.
BP paid from $25.12 an acre to $60.16 an acre for tracts north of the Phillips-AEC-Chevron block closer to the southeastern border of the Prudhoe Bay unit, an area where it acquired 10 tracts. BP also won three tracts south of the Kuparuk River unit bidding by itself and four adjacent tracts bidding with Phillips.
Anadarko and AEC acquired a large block of tracts on the southern edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, south and southwest of Point Thomson at the southern edge of the sale area. Beaufort Sale The Beaufort Sea sale was dominated by independents. There were 14 bids on 11 tracts in that sale. The only major bidding was Exxon Mobil Corp., which took one tract at $14.82 an acre for a total of $85,364. A bidding group of 90 percent J. Andrew Bachner and 10 percent Keith Forsgren took nine tracts for $313,702.40 and A bidding group of Sun-West Oil, H. Spear, S. Spear and M. Shearn took one tract for $41,056.
The minimum bid per acre was $10. The highest bid was $14.82 an acre by ExxonMobil for tract 78 at the tip of Brownlow Point adjacent to the Point Thomson unit where ExxonMobil is the operator. The average high bonus bid for the sale was $12.98 an acre. There were an estimated 33,920 acres sold.
Under the state's areawide leasing program, land title and status reviews are done after the sale, so exact total acreage and final sale figures are not immediately available.
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