The Trump administration saw robust interest from the oil and gas sector in expanding drilling in Alaska on Wednesday, drawing more than $163 million in winning bids in the first lease sale in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in seven years.
Eleven companies submitted bids on 187 tracts of the reserve totaling around 1.3 million acres, according to the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management, which had offered more than 5.5 million acres for lease. That marks the highest-revenue sale ever in a NPR-A lease sale and the second-most acreage sold in a single auction.
It came the same day that U.S. benchmark oil futures briefly topped $100 a barrel as attacks on oil and gas infrastructure in the Persian Gulf intensified, raising fears about further supply disruptions.
The “exceptionally competitive” results “tell us a lot about the bright future of the NPR-A,” said Kevin Pendergast, BLM’s state director for Alaska. “Interest has been incredibly high.”
