Oil patch insider: AG seeks to intervene in enviro lawsuit re. Hilcorp Cook Inlet seismic

Kay Cashman

Petroleum News

The Alaska attorney general’s office filed a motion Nov. 13 to intervene in a lawsuit by Cook Inletkeeper and the Center for Biological Diversity that challenges the decision by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, acting through the National Marine Fisheries Service, to issue incidental take regulations and letters of authorization okaying the unintentional take of marine mammals by Hilcorp Alaska that allow the company to conduct underwater seismic surveys on oil and gas leases in lower Cook Inlet.

Among other things, any delay in the development of the leases causes a “direct negative impact on Alaska’s tax revenues,” the AG’s motion says.

The case, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, is No. 3:19-cv-00238-SLC.

—KAY CASHMAN