BOEM issues Cook Inlet nominations call

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is in the planning stages for a proposed 2021 Cook Inlet oil and gas lease sale. In Sept. 10 Federal Register notices BOEM said that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, public scoping for the proposed sale will be held online. The agency’s virtual meeting room will be available through Oct. 13 at http://www.boem.gov/ak258-scoping.

In the notices, one a call for information and nominations and one a notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement and provide public scoping opportunities, BOEM said it is soliciting industry nominations for areas of leasing interest, “including nominations or indications of interest in specific blocks within the Call Area,” and said it would also use the call “to gather comments and information for consideration in planning for this proposed OCS oil and gas lease sale.”

The agency noted that the call “is not a decision to hold a lease sale in the Cook Inlet Planning Area” but evaluation of the area for potential oil and gas leasing.

Nominations and comments must be received by Oct. 13 and may be submitted through the federal rulemaking portal or by mail.

Written comments for the EIA are also due Oct. 13.

The proposed lease sale area includes 224 lease blocks, some 1.09 million acres, in federal waters in Cook Inlet north of Augustine Island and south of Kalgin Island.

In addition to the availability of the online virtual meeting room BOEM said it would also hold two live virtual meetings during the 30-day scoping period at https://www.boem.gov/virtual-meeting-room-alaska, with access available at the webpage at 6:30 p.m. Alaska time Sept. 29 and 6:30 p.m. Alaska time Oct. 1. The agency said questions may be submitted during the presentations via a chat function that will be enabled during the meetings.

BOEM has developed and seeks public input on three draft alternatives: Beluga whale mitigation alternative; northern sea otter mitigation alternative; and gillnet fishery mitigation. “These draft alternatives are based on and in response to stakeholder comments made during the development of the 2017-2022 Draft Proposed Program, the 2017-2022 Proposed Program and Draft Programmatic EIS and the Cook Inlet Lease Sale 244 (held in 2017) NEPA process,” the agency said in the Federal Register.

- KRISTEN NELSON