Alaska has offered to pay oil companies...

Alaska has offered to pay oil companies a portion of their private drilling costs on new wells--with no strings attached, in an effort to encourage new oil exploration during an industry slump. Alaska auctioned 338,687 acres of state-owned land in an oil and gas lease sale that attracted significant oil industry interest--thanks to the exploration incentives. Oil companies can expect Alaska to bear up to 15% of total exploratory well costs for the first well drilled in the newly auctioned tracts, which are north of the Arctic Circle and about 60 miles west of Prudhoe Bay.