Winning bids in Wednesday’s Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) oil and gas lease sales for the North Slope, North Slope Foothills and the Beaufort Sea totaled $14.2 million, $11.5 million of which came from the North Slope sale, DNR said, adding that the results indicate continued interest in the region’s hydrocarbon resources.

The North Slope area lease sale was the fourth largest by dollar amount since area-wide lease sales began in 1998, DNR said. The Beaufort Sea sale netted the state close to $1.8 million, making it the fifth largest by dollar amount in that area.

Overall in the sale, DNR’s Division of Oil and Gas received 132 bids on 122 tracts from 13 different bidding groups, encompassing 310,500 acres. Bidders included North Slope major producers s as well as familiar smaller companies and at least two new players.

Sale terms and conditions were revised last year to encourage timely exploration and production from state land. The 2011 lease sale netted more than 300 bids for North Slope and Beaufort tracts, with a total high bid value of $21 million, DNR said.

The North Slope Foothills area, which hasn’t seen any bidding in the past three years, received eight bids, the fourth best result ever by bonus bids for that area, DNR said. The Foothills region has seen sporadic exploration for oil and gas and several large prospects have been identified in recent decades.

“We are encouraged to see bidding in the Foothills region as well as the potentially gas-prone area in the southern part of the North Slope sale area, which may have an associated oil play,” said Bill Barron, Division of Oil and Gas director.

“In the past two years, DNR has undertaken significant efforts to get the word out about the North Slope’s world-class resources and encourage investment in Alaska. We are seeing fruits from our efforts and we plan to continue this important work,” said DNR Commissioner Dan Sullivan.

Preliminary, post-adjudication sale results are expected to be available on the DNR website on Friday.

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