Alaska opens Arctic oil lease bidding after its best sale in a decade

The state of Alaska opened bidding Tuesday on oil and gas leases across nearly 8 million acres of the North Slope and Beaufort Sea, a year after the same three sales had their best showing in more than a decade.

Last year's round drew $17.5 million in high bids on 287 tracts. That was the most tracts leased since 2014 and the most money since 2018, the state Division of Oil and Gas said in November 2025. Nine companies bid in the North Slope sale alone, including Repsol and Oil Search, and three companies won leases in the region for the first time.

This year, companies compete by offering upfront cash payments in sealed bids, due online by noon Nov. 12, according to the state's sale notice. Results come out Nov. 18 at 9 am. Leases run for 10 years.

The largest offering by area is the North Slope Foothills, about 4.3 million acres stretching from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge west to the Colville River and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, with Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve to the south, according to the division's sale page.

Terms there are lower. Bids in the Foothills start at $5 an acre, compared with $35 in the other two sales. The state's royalty, its share of any future production, is 12.5% on all Foothills tracts, compared with 16.67% on most others. Rent starts at $1 an acre a year and rises to $3, compared with $10 elsewhere.

Last year, the Foothills drew bids on seven tracts, all from one company new to the area, AK Frontier Energy.

The North Slope sale offers 1,741 tracts covering about 2.7 million acres next to areas with recent exploration activity, the division says. Some are owned jointly by the state and Arctic Slope Regional Corp. Last year, Surprise Valley Resources was that sale's largest bidder.

The Beaufort Sea sale offers 298 tracts covering 865,000 acres. Last year, a single bidder, Samuel Cade, won all nine tracts leased there, near the Point Thomson units.

The state sales are separate from federal leasing. A federal sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in June drew $3.74 million in winning bids from two bidders, Alaska News reported.