SALSA on fall lease sale menu again this year; no takers in 2018
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Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Last year the state offered Special Alaska Lease Sale Areas, SALSA, in its North Slope and Beaufort Sea areawide lease sales. SALSA is on the menu again this year.
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas has posted an updated version of the SALSA data guide online at http://dog.dnr.alaska.gov/Library/SALSA.
“We received enthusiastic feedback about the 2018 SALSA program and the data compilation associated with the program,” DNR Commissioner Corri Feige said in a May 15 statement. “By signaling our intentions earlier this year, potential bidders will have much more time to evaluate and consider opportunities.”
The bid opening for the fall 2019 sale is tentatively set for 9 a.m. Dec. 11 in Anchorage; the notice of sale with terms and conditions will be available in June.
In the presentation the division described this as an opportunity to bid on large, contiguous acreage blocks, groups of North Slope and Beaufort Sea Areawide lease sale tracts that will be offered together.
The division said it “has gathered and highlighted large amounts of publicly available data that bears on the SALSA areas.”
Lists of the types of information available are included in the division’s presentation on the program.
Each of the lease blocks has 3-D seismic data acquired through the state’s tax credit program. The division said the seismic data is available “for a modest fee” through DNR.
The three proposed SALSA blocks are Harrison Bay, Gwydyr Bay/North Shore and Storms.
The division had no takers for the SALSA blocks last year, the first time the blocks were offered.
- KRISTEN NELSON
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