Oil Firms Bid $163M in Record Alaska Lease Auction

Oil companies submitted high bids totaling $163 million in a record-breaking auction for drilling leases in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve on Wednesday, marking the first such sale in the region since 2019.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management offered 625 tracts spanning about 5.5 million acres in the 23-million-acre reserve, located on Alaska's North Slope. Eleven companies placed around 430 bids on 187 tracts covering 1.3 million acres, according to the Interior Department. The reserve, roughly the size of Indiana and characterized by tundra and wetlands, was originally set aside in 1923 as an emergency oil supply for the U.S. Navy and opened to commercial development in the 1970s amid national energy shortages.

Repsol SA and Shell Plc emerged as the top bidders with more than $91 million in joint offers on numerous tracts. Other major participants included ConocoPhillips, which targeted areas near its existing Willow oil project authorized in 2023, as well as Exxon Mobil and North Slope Exploration LLC. Half of the proceeds, approximately $81.5 million, will go to the state of Alaska, officials said.

The sale fulfills the first of at least five mandated auctions required by...