MMS issues final EIS for inlet lease sales

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News editor-in-chief

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service has issued a final environmental impact statement for Cook Inlet lease sales 191 and 199, scheduled for May 2004 and 2006, respectively.

The agency said that while it has prepared a single EIS for the sales, a separate decision on whether to proceed will be made for each sale. The proposal is to offer 517 whole or partial lease blocks in the 2.5 million acre Cook Inlet outer continental shelf planning area. Shelikof Strait is excluded from the sales area.

The agency’s preferred alternative defers offering 34 blocks in the southeast portion of Cook Inlet and defers offering 36 blocks around the Barren Islands and Kennedy Entrance.

MMS said the deferrals were developed in part to reduce conflicts between subsistence users and offshore oil and gas operations and to reduce potential impacts to endangered and threatened species including beluga whale, Stellar sea lion, sea otter, humpback whale and other whales.