Fall oil, gas lease sale set for Nov. 19

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources has set Nov. 19 as the date for its fall oil and gas lease sales.

DNR said bids for the annual North Slope, Beaufort Sea and North Slope Foothills areawide oil and gas lease sales will be opened at 9 a.m. at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage.

The state and the federal Bureau of Land Management have coordinated fall lease sales in recent years; the BLM date had not yet been published when Petroleum News went to print.

The entire lease sale area is some 14 million acres, DNR said, and bidding methods, minimum bids and lease terms remain the same as for sales held from 2011 to 2013.

“The North Slope and Beaufort Sea sale areas continue to include terms and conditions to incentivize exploration of tracts adjacent to federal lands, which include the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,” DNR said.

Bill Barron, director of DNR’s Division of Oil and Gas, said “results from the past three sales show that investors have continued interest in obtaining new state oil and gas leases for exploration in northern Alaska.”

Bidders must be qualified by 4 p.m. Nov. 14 and bids must be received by 4 p.m. Nov. 17.

- Petroleum News