State calls for new information for ‘06 sales

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil and Gas, is calling for new information for its 2006 areawide North Slope and Beaufort Sea oil and gas sales. The sales, originally scheduled for October, have been rescheduled for February.

The division is looking for “new information that has become available since the issuance of the final best interest finding,” which was March 1998 for the North Slope and July 1999 for the Foothills.

There was a call for new information for these sales in February, which is being repeated due to the rescheduling. The division said information submitted earlier in the year need not be resubmitted. This call for new information opened Aug. 16 and closes Sept. 30, and the state will either issue a supplement to the best interest finding or a decision of no new information for each sale in November.

The division is requesting new information concerning: fish and wildlife; current and projected uses of the proposed sale area; potential geophysical hazards; archaeological sites and historic places; characteristics of local communities; air and water quality; and reasonably foreseeable effects of oil and gas exploration, development, production and transportation on subsistence and other uses, on municipalities and communities and on the environment.