1 bid in state Cook Inlet sale, none in BOEM OCS inlet sale
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Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The Alaska Division of Oil and Gas garnered only a single bid in its March 4 Cook Inlet oil and gas lease sale and no bids were received for the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's Cook Inlet sale.
A Cook Inlet areawide sale is part of the state's regular areawide lease sales with sales held annually.
Three Mountain Oil LLC bid a 33.99% net profit share for the 20-acre tract at the southern tip of the state's Kenai Peninsula offerings. With a fixed cash bonus per acre of $30, the cash bonus was $600.
Jim Winegarner is the agent and manager of Three Mountain Oil.
The state's Cook Inlet areawide sales have had minimal results in recent years, with bids in the last half dozen sales ranging from zero in 2023 to a high of six in 2022.
In conjunction with the Cook Inlet areawide, the state also offered the Alaska Peninsula areawide, and received one bid in that sale, from Teresa Gouch, for a 160-acre tract at the northern edge of the offering. Gouch bid the minimum $5 per acre.
Division of Oil and Gas Records show Gouch, listed as a resident of Huntington Beach California, also holds a single tract in the North Slope Foothills.
There are no active leases in the Alaska Peninsula sale area and the last time there were bids in that areawide sale was in 2014.
BOEM sale BOEM said that while no bids were received for this sale, "we will continue to hold leasing opportunities for Cook Inlet so that industry has a regular, predictable federal leasing schedule."
Public Law 119-21, the 2025 "One Big Beautiful Act," requires BOEM to hold at least six offshore oil and gas lease sales in Cook Inlet: one each year from 2026 to 2028, and again 2030-2032.
Big Beautiful Cook Inlet 1 was the first of the required sales, with bids accepted from Feb. 2 through March 3.
There are eight existing leases in the federal sale area in lower Cook Inlet, all held by Hilcorp.
--KRISTEN NELSON
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