Hilcorp Energy dominated the state’s annual Cook Inlet areawide lease sale on Wednesday, which saw modest bidding from several other companies.

Twenty-eight lease tracts were sold with high bids of $419,840 offered by six bidder groups, Alaska Oil And Gas Division Director Bill Barron said.

Hilcorp bid mostly for onshore tracts on the Kenai Peninsula near areas where it is operating existing gas wells.

North Slope oil operators are ramping up activities following the Legislature’s approval of changes to state oil production tax on April 14.

ConocoPhillips said it will put an additional drill rig to work in the Kuparuk River field, which the company operates, said Trond-Erik Johansen, president of ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc.

ConocoPhillips will also work with its partners in the Kuparuk field, with BP being the most important, to develop a new drill site on the southwest flank of the field. An exploration well, “Sharktooth,” was drilled in the area last year.

The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission began two days of hearings Thursday on proposed new regulations on hydraulic fracturing. The petroleum industry said they would be among the toughest in the nation, if adopted.

Fracturing, also called “fracking” is a process where fluids and a material like sand are injected at high pressure down an oil well to fracture a producing rock formation and produce more oil.

Hilcorp Energy is bringing more equipment to Cook Inlet to drill for oil and gas. The company is bringing two larger land drill rigs and is having two smaller workover rigs built for the company’s operations.

All four of the rigs are expected to be in Alaska this summer, Hilcorp spokeswoman Lori Nelson said.

“The land rigs are being brought to Alaska from Alberta by Saxon Energy Services of Calgary who will also operate the rigs, although Hilcorp will own them,” she said.