Alaska sales to be May 24

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

The State of Alaska’s 2006 Cook Inlet and North Slope Foothills areawide oil and gas lease sales will be held May 24 in Anchorage.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas said bid opening will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Wilda Marston Theater in the Loussac Public Library.

The 815 Cook Inlet tracts range in size from 640 to 5,760 acres and will be offered for a minimum bid of $10 per acre and a fixed royalty rate of 12.5 percent.

This year the tracts have two different lease terms, with one group of tracts being offered for seven years and the other group for five years, a change from previous Cook Inlet areawide lease sale terms, Division of Oil and Gas Deputy Director Pirtle Bates told Petroleum News.

The shorter term leases will be for tracts that are generally within three miles of existing infrastructure and/or the shoreline.

There are 1,347 tracts in the North Slope Foothills sale, ranging in size from 1,280 to 5,760 acres. All tracts in the Foothills sale have a minimum bid of $5 per acre, a fixed royalty rate of 12.5 percent and a term of 10 years. This sale has no new terms.

In 2004 and 2005 Cook Inlet areawide sales the state leased 225,000 to 250,000 acres and drew total bids in the range of $1.5 million to $1.7 million.

In 2004 and 2005 Foothills sales the state leased from 20,000 to 55,000 acres and drew total bids of some $106,000 to $320,000.

More information is available on the division’s Web site at www.dog.dnr.state.ak.us/oil/.