|
Feds ask for interest in Cook Inlet sale Industry asked to nominate areas; 13 exploration wells have been drilled in lower inlet area; no active federal oil and gas leases Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is seeking expressions of interest from industry in oil and gas leasing in federal waters in southern Cook Inlet.
In a March 24 statement Interior called this a “key step in the planning process for a potential oil and natural gas lease sale in the Cook Inlet Planning Area.”
Interior’s proposed outer continental shelf oil and gas leasing program for 2012-17 includes a potential special-interest lease sale in Cook Inlet, sale 244. Special-interest sales are held if there is sufficient industry interest.
A Federal Register notice published March 27 says responses are due by May 11. The sale is tentatively scheduled for late 2013 and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, said in the Federal Register notice that it will decide whether to continue the sale preparation process after the 45-day request for interest closes. If industry response does not indicate interest in a sale at this time, sale preparations will not continue, but BOEM said in that event it may issue another request for interest at a later time.
Industry is asked to nominate specific tracts in the planning area or, if a company believes a larger area should be considered for the sale, it should “explicitly describe its interest, including a summary of the geologic and economic information about the larger area,” BOEM said.
The agency said companies should rank nominated areas by priority of interest, are encouraged to be specific in indicating blocks by priority and be prepared to discuss “their range of interest and activity” in the nominated areas.
In a 2011 assessment of outer continental shelf undiscovered technically recoverable resources BOEM estimated the mean undiscovered conventionally recoverable resources for the Cook Inlet planning area to be 1.01 billion barrels of oil and 1.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Thirteen wells Thirteen exploration wells were drilled in federal waters in Cook Inlet between 1978 and 1985; there are currently no active oil or gas exploration or development facilities in Cook Inlet federal waters.
Federal waters in Cook Inlet begin south of Kalgin Island and extend south through Shelikof Strait to just above the southern tip of Kodiak Island.
BOEM’s predecessor agency, the Minerals Management Service, held lease sales and sold tracts in Cook Inlet federal waters beginning in 1977, when it leased 87 tracts with high bids of $398 million; in 1981 when 13 tracts were leased for $4.4 million; and in 1997 when two tracts were leased for just under $254,000.
Sales in 1982 and 2004 drew no bidders and two proposed sales were cancelled in 2009 and 2011 due to lack of industry interest.
BOEM Director Tommy Beaudreau said the request for industry interest in the area “is the first step in a careful process designed both to gauge industry interest in oil and gas exploration in the Cook Inlet Planning Area and to develop information about the potential effects of that activity.”
He said BOEM will consider industry interest, resource potential and the protection of Alaska communities and environments in its decision. “Any future decisions regarding a lease sale in this planning area will be based on rigorous science and stakeholder input,” he said.
BOEM said if it moves forward with planning for a potential sale it would conduct an environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act.
| 