Alaska's annual North Slope state petroleum lease sale took in high bids of $14.2 million Wednesday morning.
A pair of oil companies a few hours later bid about $900,000 for tracts in the federal government's National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
Bids for both sales were due Monday.
The state lease sale was for tracts on the North Slope, in nearshore waters of the Beaufort Sea, and in the North Slope Foothills.
The foothills attracted bids for the first time in four years and Anadarko Petroleum bid on eight tracts.
Just two companies, Woodstone Resources LLC and Nordaq Energy Inc., submitted bids in the NPRA. Their high bids were on 14 tracts covering 160,088 acres.
The state receives 50 percent of the lease income on the federal tracts.
Contact Chris Klint
