MMS defers three potential Alaska OCS lease sales

Postponement due to lack of industry interest in Cook Inlet, Gulf of Alaska, Chukchi Sea/Hope Basin sales

Kristen Nelson

PNA News Editor

Three potential Alaska outer continental shelf oil and gas lease sales on the U.S. Minerals Management Services’ current five-year program are being deferred.

Outgoing MMS Director Cynthia Quarterman told the Alaska Support Industry Alliance Jan. 22 that the agency has been talking to industry about potential Alaska OCS lease sales.

Industry remains interested in a potential Beaufort Sea sale, Quarterman said, although that sale has been deferred from 2000 to 2001. The first of five potential Alaska OCS sales in the current five-year plan, MMS Beaufort Sea Sale 170, was held Aug. 5 in Anchorage and brought in $6.2 million in high bids on 29 tracts.

Quarterman said industry was not interested in OCS sales in Cook Inlet and the Gulf of Alaska (on the potential sale schedule for 2001) and the Chukchi Sea/Hope Basin (a potential 2002 sale). Because of that lack of interest, Quarterman said, MMS will not consider sales in those areas in the current five-year program, but will reconsider the areas as part of the next five-year plan.

The current five-year plan covers 1997-2002; preliminary work is expected to begin on the environmental impact statement for the next five-year plan in 2000, said MMS spokeswoman Robin Cacy.