2 Companies Win Oil, Gas Leases in Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The first sale of state oil and gas leases in 22 years on the Alaska Peninsula generated 37 bids Wednesday, with a major oil company winning the most.

Shell Offshore Inc., part of Shell Exploration & Production Co., was the high bidder on 33 tracts, all centered near Port Moeller. The site is southeast of Nelson Lagoon, about 580 miles southwest of Anchorage. Hewitt Mineral Corp. of Ardmore, Okla., was high bidder on four tracts in the same area.
Alaska offered 1,047 tracts covering about 5.8 million acres, an area about the size of New Hampshire. The sale acreage available stretched from the Nushagak Peninsula in the north, down the north side of the Alaska Peninsula, to an area north of Cold Bay, including offshore tracts.

The bids generated about $1.3 million. The minimum bid was $5 per acre.

AP