A significant amount of previously leased acreage will be included in Alaska’s North Slope oil and gas lease sale in December, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said. Due to lease expirations and other administrative actions, an additional 200,000 acres are to be available in the vicinity of Point Thomson and in the Beaufort Sea.

“We expect interest in these areas and hope that exploration will soon follow,” said Bill Barron, director of DNR’s Division of Oil and Gas.

In September DNR said it was postponing the sale in order to possibly add acreage (see Daily GPI, Sept. 13). The upcoming Beaufort Sea, North Slope and North Slope Foothills sale will encompass about 14.7 million acres in northern Alaska. Bids will be received on Dec. 5 and bid opening is scheduled for Dec. 7.

The lease sale will make available eight tracts that were formerly part of the Point Thomson unit and 22 tracts that were previously deferred due to their proximity to the unit. These 30 tracts increase the available acreage by 72,000 acres.

Forty-five tracts previously included in the proposed Greater Bullen Unit west of Point Thomson also will be available for the December sale. These tracts increase available acreage by 106,540 acres.

Five leases from the previously proposed Donkel Oil and Gas Unit in the Beaufort Sea, north of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, have expired, making an additional 14,403 acres available for the sale.

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