State issues Cook Inlet leases; three not taken

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News Editor-in-Chief

The state of Alaska is in the process of issuing leases from its 2003 Cook Inlet areawide oil and gas lease sale, but three of the leases weren't taken by the successful bidders, Pirtle Bates, lease sales and lease administration supervisor, Division of Oil and Gas, told Petroleum News Oct. 3.

The sale, held May 7, drew 28 bids for a total of almost $690,000. Prodigy Alaska was the sale's big bidder, taking seven tracts for $415,385.60.

The successful bidders are out the 20 percent of their winning bids required at the time of the sale, but won't have to pay the remaining bid amount or annual rent, Bates said.

The three leases which were awarded, but not taken by the bidders, are: tract 101, won by Monte Allen, with a bid of $5.27 an acre for 5,662 acres, a total bid of $29,838.74; tract 111, won by Monte Allen, Laurel Bassett and Mary Azalea Goldstein, with a bid of $5.52 an acre for 5,760 acres, a total of $31,795.20; and tract 336, won by Daniel Donkel and Kenneth Mehaffey, with a bid of $5 an acre for 5,061.81 acres, a total of $25,304,05.

The leases not taken are all in undeveloped areas: tract 101 is in lower Cook Inlet, immediately south of a Kalgin Island lease held by Monte Allen; tract 111 is on the west side of Cook Inlet, primarily onshore, and adjacent to a lease held by Allen north of Harriet Point; and tract 336 is on the northern Kenai Peninsula, southwest of Point Possession, primarily onshore.