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New data issued for North Slope, Beaufort Sea areawide lease sales
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources has issued decisions of “substantial new information” for the North Slope and Beaufort Sea areawide oil and gas lease sales scheduled for Oct. 24.
DNR Commissioner Tom Irwin said in a July 25 decision that the state received comments on the sales from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service outlining eight studies Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Geological Survey are undertaking in 2007 as part of a status assessment of the current status of polar bears worldwide. The assessment is being done in response to a petition requesting that Fish and Wildlife list polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act due to loss of sea ice habitat.
Fish and Wildlife found there was sufficient evidence to warrant listing and prepared a proposed rule in January with a final listing determination to be made in January 2008 and DNR said the information provided by Fish and Wildlife “is substantial new information.”
No new mitigation measures The department said that since the decision on listing the polar bear is not final, “it is premature to develop new mitigation measures or lessee advisories to supplement” the areawide best interest findings for the two sales but said that in the interim it is advising oil and gas operators that if polar bears are listed under the Endangered Species Act, consultation with Fish and Wildlife “may be required prior to initiation of activities in the proposed lease sale areas.” The state said it also encourages lessees to participate in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service incidental take program for nearshore and coastal exploration, development and protection.
Bid opening for the sales will begin at 9 a.m. at the Wilda Marston Theater in Anchorage’s Loussac Public Library.
Tracts 27 through 39, east of Kaktovik, and tracts 555 and 557 through 573, between Tangent Point and Point Barrow, are deferred from the Beaufort Sea sale.
The minimum bid is $10 per acre on all tracts in both sales. Royalty rates vary from 12.5 percent to 16.6667 percent and the length of the leases from five to 10 years.
Details are available on the division’s Web site at www.dog.dnr.state.ak.us.
—Petroleum News
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