ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska Native regional corporation and six Native Village corporations signed an agreement with a Shell Oil subsidiary Thursday that aims to share the profits from offshore drilling off Alaska’s northwest coast.

Shell and the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. announced the formation of a new company called Arctic Inupiat Offshore LLC. Its participants include six village corporations on the North Slope. The agreement with the Shell subsidiary, Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc., gives the Alaska Native company the option of acquiring an overriding royalty interest from Shell’s drilling on leases in the Chukchi Sea.