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Cook Inlet, foothills areawide lease sale bids to be opened May 7
Kristen Nelson, PNA editor-in-chief
The Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil and Gas, has issued sales announcements for the Cook Inlet Areawide 2003 and North Slope Foothills Areawide 2003 oil and gas lease sales. Bids for both sales will be opened May 7.
The division said Jan. 29 that lands within the sale areas not covered by existing leases as of Feb. 5 will be considered available for leasing. Lands that become available for leasing after that date will be included in the 2004 sales.
The division also issued decisions of no new information for both sales on Jan. 29. It said it received no substantial new information for the Foothills sale.
For the Cook Inlet areawide sale, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requested new mitigation measures in Chickaloon Flats, but the division said it does not believe it is necessary to apply mitigation measures to tracts that are not included in the sale.
“The tracts in the Chickaloon Bay area have been identified as important beluga whale habitat by the National Marine Fisheries Service and were stayed from leasing in previous Cook Inlet areawide sales by the superior court,” the division said.
Tracts not included Tracts not offered in the Cook Inlet sale include several dozen tracts identified by the National Marine Fisheries Service as important habitat for the Cook Inlet population of beluga whales where leasing has been stayed by court order. Those tracts will be included in future sales “only upon a supplemental finding by this department that there is a plan in place to address concerns over beluga habitat.” Five tracts were withdrawn because they are affected by litigation or appeals contesting actions taken by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission or the division. “Leasing of these tracts is stayed pending final rulings in these cases.”
The Fish and Wildlife Service also submitted information on a brief 2001 shoreline survey of Steller’s eiders at Deep Creek and requested that the area be recognized for its importance to as wintering bird habitat. The division said Fish and Wildlife Service submitted the same information in 2001.
“This is not new information and by itself is insufficient to justify a supplement to the final finding,” the division said, adding that it would “wait for more formal surveys before undertaking a supplement to the Steller’s eiders discussion.”
Fish and Wildlife also called for a supplement “to acknowledge the special values of the Kenai River and establish a buffer zone around its banks and tributaries” and asked that land within one mile of the river be deleted.
The division said Fish and Wildlife “submitted no new information to support a supplement or justify an increase in the stream setbacks along the Kenai River and its tributaries. General comments referencing previously submitted comments do not constitute substantial new information.”
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