No substantial new info for northern sales
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Petroleum News
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas has issued a decision finding no substantial new information for its 2025 North Slope, North Slope Foothills and Beaufort Sea areawide sales. The June 11 decision, signed by division Director Derek Nottingham, follows a March 19 call for new information for the sales; the submission period ended April 21.
Final best interest findings were issued for the North Slope in April 2018, for the North Slope Foothills in 2021 and for the Beaufort Sea in 2019. Best interest findings are good for 10 years, with annual calls for substantial new information. The division has issued decisions of no substantial new information for all three sales every year since the best interest findings were issued.
The division said it "generally considers substantial new information to include published research, studies, or data that are directly relevant to the matters listed in AS 38.05.035(g) with respect to the lands covered in the final findings and that have become publicly available over the past year."
The division received timely comments from the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service on the North Slope Foothills and Beaufort Sea sales.
The F&WS comments, as summarized in the decision, were extensive, but in every case the division found that while the information might be used when a new best interest finding was done, it was not substantial new information requiring a supplement to the current best interest finding.
--Petroleum News
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