The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority was the high bidder, by far the most active bidder, and saw little competition in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain lease sale Jan. 6. Receive daily email alerts, subscriber notes & personalize your experience. Register Now Although NYMEX front-month crude futures have recently risen above $50/b operators have reined in their capital spending and their attraction to longer-lead projects. As a result, “it [was] highly unlikely that big operators such as ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Hilcorp and Eni” would be drawn to bid in the sale, S&P Global Platts Analytics analyst Parker Fawcett said. “For operators it seems clear, the political and regulatory risk under a Biden administration, along with minimal appetite for expensive exploration in the […]