$10.9M from State North Slope Lease Sale
Held by Shell until this year, the West Harrison Bay leases were the focus of bidding in state waters offshore from the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska. The map shows winning bids by EE Partners Corporation in teal and Juneau Oil & Gas in orange.
Photo Credit: Alaska Department of Natural Resources
A lease sale for the North Slope region brought an estimated $10.9 million “cash bonus” to the State of Alaska, the largest since 2018. The annual sale also saw the first bid in the North Slope Foothills in a decade.
Higher Bids on Fewer Tracts
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources received ninety bids on tracts covering more than 184,000 acres across the Beaufort Sea, North Slope, and Cook Inlet. That’s fewer bids than a year ago, when a sale combined with Cook Inlet and Alaska Peninsula tracts brought a cash bonus of $8 million.
Altogether, seven bidders participated. The North Slope Foothills sale area saw its first bid in a decade, in the western end of the area beyond Umiat. An investor in California offered $1,200, or $5 per acre for a single tract on the far western edge of state lands, abutting the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska.
A surprise entrant is Surprise Valley Resources, a company new to Alaska winning bids on a block of forty-one tracts on the east side of the Dalton Highway, opposite the Talitha and Alkaid units being explored by Great Bear Pantheon.
Current Issue
December 2024
Langiappe Alaska expanded its position in the eastern North Slope with successful bids on eleven tracts adjacent to the Point Thomson unit. Langniappe snapped up an additional offshore tract, as did Savant Alaska.
The only competitive bidding occurred offshore, in Beaufort Sea tracts recently relinquished by Shell in West Harrison Bay. EE Partners Corporation won six tracts mainly in the middle of the bay, but for tracts on the periphery of the bay it was outbid by Juneau Oil & Gas. EE Partners bought leases southeast of West Harrison Bay a year ago and since formed the Narwhal unit surrounding the bay with its joint venture partner Narwhal LLC.
“It is extremely promising to see new bidders and competition in this latest lease sale, especially as so many highly prospective areas are already under lease and being actively explored,” says Natural Resources Commissioner John Boyle.
The state lease sale also saw Captivate Energy Alaska, a subsidiary of Australia-based 88 Energy, broaden its holdings down under the Prudhoe Bay unit with four tracts southwest of Deadhorse.
Boyle adds, “We need to do everything in our power to support these newly leased areas becoming exploration prospects, future discoveries, and potential development opportunities that will support Alaskans for generations to come.”
The combined sale earned an estimated $10.9 million in cash bonus for the state treasury, the highest amount since the Fall 2018 sales.
Two Minimum Wage Increases Set for 2025
Minimum wage earners get two raises in 2025. An inflation adjustment to $11.91 takes effect in January before a voter-approved hike to $13 per hour in July.
Mat-Su College Opens New Suite to Train Veterinary Technicians
Mat-Su College opens a new veterinary technician education suite to train students for an in-demand job they can carry anywhere.
Ten Years of Fiscal Stability with SB21
In the ten years since voters upheld SB21, oil taxation has seen a decade of relative stability. Has the tax structure lived up to its promise of boosting investment in Alaska’s oil fields?
