Repsol, Shell, Conoco Offer High Bids for Alaska Oil Leases

Repsol YPF SA (REP), Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and ConocoPhillips (COP) are among the high bidders for oil leases offered by the State of Alaska.

The state Department of Natural Resources sold leases today for 281,095 acres in the Beaufort Sea and 335,289 acres on the North Slope, to boost oil exploration and production and push more crude through the Trans Alaska Pipeline.

Repsol of Madrid, Spain’s largest oil company, bid $2.6 million for North Slope tracts and $376,256 for Beaufort leases. Shell of The Hague offered $2.6 million for access to the Beaufort Sea, where it has holdings purchased from the federal government in 2005. Conoco, based in Houston, will pay $2.7 million for access to North Slope lands, according to an interim sale report from the state.

“Shell’s participation in today’s lease sale underscores our ambition to be a long-term partner with the State of Alaska,” Pete Slaiby, Shell Alaska vice president, said in an e-mailed statement.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which auctioned 3 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve, will release results later today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Katarzyna Klimasinska in Washington at kklimasinska@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net

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