Four producers — Anadarko Petroleum, ConocoPhillips Alaska, FEX LP and Petro-Canada Alaska Inc. — last Wednesday submitted bonus bids totaling $13.86 million to win the rights to develop 81 oil and natural gas lease tracts on nearly one million acres in the northwestern corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Alaska said.

The single largest bid of $2.28 million was offered by FEX LP and Petro-Canada Alaska for tract 272, according to the Interior Department agency. Both FEX LP and Petro-Canada jointly bid more than $10.3 million, the highest total amount, to acquire 48 tracts. Anadarko had 25 successful bids and ConocoPhillips submitted eight successful bids, it said.

The state of Alaska and federal government each will receive approximately $6.93 million as a result of the lease sale. BLM said it has 90 days to evaluate the bids before officially awarding them.

The leases were offered as part of a downsized sale in the northwest corner of the NPRA. BLM proceeded with the smaller sale after a federal judge in Anchorage last Monday enjoined the Interior agency from selling leases in the northeastern portion of the NPRA. U.S. District Judge James K. Singleton ruled that the agency had failed to adequately address the cumulative effects of oil and gas development in that part of the reserve, particularly in the environmentally sensitive Teshekpuk Lake area.

The BLM received bids on 81 different tracts covering 940,000 acres in the northwestern area of the NPRA. It initially offered 478 tracts for lease in the northwest area of the reserve, 202 tracts in the northeast corner of the NPRA, and 16 tracts that were considered to be in both areas. Sealed bids on all the tracts, with the exception of those in the northwest part of the reserve, will be returned to bidders.

In his decision, Singleton said Interior violated the National Environmental Policy Act and abused its discretion by “having failed to fully consider the cumulative effects” of proposed oil and gas development in the northeast reserve area with the activity in the Northwest Planning Area of the reserve in its environmental review.

Several environmental groups, including the National Audubon Society of Alaska and the Wilderness League, filed the lawsuit challenging Interior’s decision to allow the lease sale in the northeastern corner of the 23-million-acre reserve. Environmentalists specifically opposed leasing in the Teshekpuk Lake area.

Interior estimates that the federal lands in the NPRA contain between 5.6 billion and 13.2 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil resources and 39 to 83 Tcf of natural gas.

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