MMS to prepare multi-sale EIS for Beaufort Sea sale

By Petroleum News • Alaska Staff

The Minerals Management Service said Jan. 29 that it will prepare a multi-sale environmental impact statement for three Beaufort Sea oil and gas lease sales included in the 2002-2007 draft five-year program. The agency said last year that it will do a multi-sale EIS for proposed Cook Inlet sales.

In the Beaufort Sea the MMS will study a 9.7 million acre area from three to 60 nautical miles offshore from Barrow to the Canadian border.

The EIS for sale 186, tentatively scheduled for 2003, will also evaluate sales 195 and 202, tentatively scheduled for 2005 and 2007.

MMS said this is the first time it has prepared a multi-sale EIS for the Beaufort Sea although a similar process was used in the central and western Gulf of Mexico for all sales in the 1997-2002 five-year program.

The draft EIS will be released for public review in May 2002 and MMS will hold public hearings on the document in communities adjacent to the sale area and in Anchorage.

MMS has conducted seven federal oil and gas lease sales in the Beaufort Sea since 1979 and issued 688 leases. Industry drilled 30 exploratory wells. The agency said only 54 leases remain. Ten leases were determined by MMS to be producible. One, BP’s Northstar project, came on line in November 2001 and is currently providing 45,000 barrels per day of oil to the trans-Alaska pipeline.

Copies of the area identification may for sale 186 are available at or by writing to the MMS Information Resource Center in Anchorage: MMS, 949 E. 36th Ave., Room 308, Anchorage AK 99508-4363; or by calling 1-800-764-2627.