The Alaska Division of Oil & Gas held its annual lease sales for Cook Inlet and Alaska Peninsula regions in late May and early June, for a total of 7.9 million acres of state-owned land. On Wednesday, the division announced Hilcorp was the only bidder for the 725 leases available in Cook Inlet. As anticipated, there were no bidders for the 1,004 leases in the Alaska Peninsula region.
This was the second time the division offered terms that included no royalty payments to the State of Alaska, with the State instead generating revenue through a profit-sharing method. This allows the successful bidder to recover costs more quickly and it is intended to make marginal projects more economically viable.
Hilcorp, which started working in Alaska in 2011, as larger oil and gas producers were exiting Cook Inlet, is one of the largest privately owned oil and natural gas producers in the United States. It operates in Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming.
It took over for BP on the North Slope in 2020 and has operated in Cook Inlet for nearly 15 years, investing over $1 billion in the Cook Inlet Basin and producing over 700 Bcf of gas since entering Alaska. In 2024, Hilcorp made its largest ever budget commitment to future activities within Alaska. It partners with more than 700 small businesses in the state and has donated more than $1.9 million to Alaska charities and nonprofits since 2020.
