Second hit I got on " Alaska oil lease" in google:
By Yereth Rosen
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - At least three oil companies have expressed interest in taking over Exxon Mobil Corp's long-languishing leases at its Point Thomson oil field in Alaska, if the state succeeds in taking them away from the world's largest oil company.
Alaska is fighting a legal battle to yank the properties from Exxon and its partners for allegedly violating the terms of the leases by not developing the field's estimated hundreds of millions of barrels of oil and 8 trillion to 9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Three companies have told state officials they would like to buy and develop the leases, after the state formally takes back the properties, said Marty Rutherford, deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.
"There are three major companies that have been very interested. Two of them have been very aggressive about wanting to talk to the state," she told Reuters Thursday. "The bottom line is the state law doesn't allow people to warehouse our leases with no activity."
She declined to name the companies but said they have promised to develop more rapidly than Exxon has. "They're very clear that they would be much better partners in that unit, that ex-unit, as they put it," she said.
Alaska legislators have speculated that Shell Oil was among the companies interested in the leases.
Exxon and its partners -- BP Plc, Chevron Corp and ConocoPhillips -- have not drilled on the Point Thomson leases since 1982, but maintain that they have met their commitments and have turned to the Alaska court system to fight for their leases.
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Oil/idUSN1936464220080619