finance
Exxon, Shell and Repsol Submit $163 Million in Bids at Alaska Petroleum Reserve Lease Sale
A lease sale in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska drew record bids totaling $163 million from Exxon, Shell and Repsol. The Trump administration revived the sales late last year after none were held under former President Biden. Projects including Willow and Pikka are expected to reverse the state's production decline.
May 13, 6:00 PM·2m read1 source
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A lease sale in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska attracted record bids worth a total of $163 million earlier this month. 5 million acres. The Alaska lease sale was revived at the end of 2025 by the Trump administration.
No lease sales were held in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska under former President Biden. Under Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, there will be a total of five lease sales in Alaska over the next ten years. The renewed interest comes as the Biden administration approved the Willow project led by ConocoPhillips.
The Willow project is set to boost Alaska’s oil output by 160,000 barrels daily. Australian Santos’ Pikka project is set to start commercial production in 2026. 5 billion and will produce up to 80,000 barrels daily.
Repsol is partnering with Santos on the Pikka development. Francisco Gea, Repsol’s head of upstream operations, said the projects would help reverse Alaska’s production decline. “With the imminent start-up of the Pikka project on the North Slope, the reversal in the decline of oil production in the great state of Alaska is going to help put more oil in the Pacific area at an important moment,” Gea stated.
Shell left Alaska in 2015 after writing off as much as $7 billion on an unsuccessful drilling campaign. Its participation in the latest lease sale therefore surprised some analysts. Chief Executive Wael Sawan emphasized that the current opportunity differs markedly from past efforts.
“It is a very, very, very different part of Alaska that we have gone to. This is an onshore exploration opportunity in a very well-established basin that has been producing for some time… So this is not offshore Alaska where we have had the challenges in the past,” Sawan said.
