New information requested for areawide sales

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

The state has issued a call for new information for two areawide oil and gas lease sales: the Beaufort Sea areawide 1999 and the North Slope areawide 2000. The sales were postponed pending the BP/ARCO merger.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas March 8 call for new information said the state anticipates holding the sales this fall. New information available since the issuance of the final best interest findings for the Beaufort Sea areawide on July 15, 1999, and the North Slope areawide on March 17, 1998, must be received by the division by 5 p.m. May 8.

The purpose of the call, the state said, is to collect substantial new information about either sale regarding fish and wildlife; current and projected uses of the sale area including subsistence; municipalities and communities of the area; the local economy; and reasonably foreseeable cumulative effects on the proposed sale area.