BLM announces NPR-A sale for Dec. 14

The federal Bureau of Land Management has published details for its 2016 National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska oil and gas lease sale. Bids will be opened Dec. 14 in Anchorage at 1 p.m. in the Denali Room on the fourth floor of the Anchorage Federal Office Building.

The state’s fall oil and gas lease sale opening will occur at 9 a.m. Dec. 14 in the Atwood Building.

BLM said this will be the 13th sale in NPR-A since 1999, will include 145 tracts and offer some 1.4 million acres for lease. There are 134 authorized leases in NPR-A covering more than 895,000 acres, the agency said.

Bid monies received for the 12 previous sales totaled more than $262 million, half of which was paid to the state.

BLM sought public input on tract nominations earlier in the year and then selected tracts based on evaluation of comments received, natural resource information, resource potential, industry interest and subsistence values.

Sealed bids must be received in the BLM Alaska State Office by 4 p.m. Dec. 12. The detailed statement of sale is available on the BLM Alaska website: www.blm.gov/ak.

- Petroleum News