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BOEM opens Cook Inlet bids online
The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will open bids for its Cook Inlet outer continental shelf lease sale in Anchorage June 21 - and for the first time in an Alaska OCS lease sale, the opening will not be open to the general public, media or industry. Instead, the bid opening and reading will be available for viewing on BOEM’s website via video live-streaming at 10 a.m. at www.boem.gov.
BOEM said May 18 that it will offer approximately 1.09 million acres off Alaska’s Southcentral coast in Sale 244, with 224 blocks toward the northern part of the federal Cook Inlet planning area, stretching roughly from Kalgin Island in the north to Augustine Island in the south. BOEM said there are currently no active leases in the Cook Inlet OCS planning area.
Sale 244, a special interest lease sale, is included in the 2012-17 OCS lease sale schedule.
Dr. Walter Cruikshank, BOEM’s acting director, said the agency “conducted a robust environmental analysis” for what will be the agency’s first Alaska OCS lease sale since 2008. “The areas offered for leasing represent a careful balance between jobs, energy development, and natural resource protection,” Cruikshank said.
The final notice of sale and a copy of the record of decision are available at www.boem.gov/ak244.
Results posted online In the Federal Register notice for the sale BOEM said it would post results on its website after the bid opening and reading are completed. Sealed bids for the sale must be received by 10 a.m. June 20.
The minimum bonus bid amount is $25 per hectare or fraction thereof; annual rental rates are $13 per hectare or fraction thereof, until the start of year eight of the primary term or a discovery of oil or gas, whichever occurs first. The annual rate then jumps to $20 per hectare or fraction thereof. The royalty rate is 12.5 percent, with a minimum royalty of $20 per hectare or fraction thereof.
BOEM said the estimated resource potential of Sale 244 is 215 million barrels of oil and 571 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
The Alaska Division of Oil and Gas previously announced its 2017 Alaska Peninsula and Cook Inlet areawide sales with public bid openings beginning at 9 a.m. June 21 in Suite 102 of the Atwood Building, 555 West 7th Avenue, Anchorage.
- KRISTEN NELSON
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