DNR seeks comment on lease sales

The Division of Oil and Gas of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources has published for public review a preliminary best interest finding for its next 10-year program of Cook Inlet areawide oil and gas lease sales. Division director Kevin Banks has found the annual areawide lease sales to be in the best interests of the state and that Cook Inlet areawide lease sales are consistent with the Alaska Coastal Management Program.

The division requires all public comment on the preliminary finding be submitted by Dec. 1.

Alaska introduced its program of areawide leasing to achieve stability and predictability in oil and gas leasing through a program of annual lease sales for each of the state’s major oil and gas areas; each lease sale offers for leasing all available tracts within the sale area. Division specialists develop a best interest finding for a 10-year program of areawide sales in each area and then make necessary adjustments to that finding before each sale.

The division issued its last best interest finding for the Cook Inlet in January 1999 and that finding is valid for lease sales until year’s end. The new best interest finding would cover lease sales held from 2009 through 2018.

The sale area of about 4.2 million acres encompasses the state waters of the upper Cook Inlet, the western shores of the Inlet, the western Kenai Peninsula, part of the Matanuska-Susitna Valley and the Anchorage Bowl.

The preparation of a best interest finding is the state’s procedure for assessing the environmental, cultural, social and fiscal impacts of a major activity involving state lands.

- Alan Bailey