|
State issues notices for North Slope Foothills, Cook Inlet areawide sales
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas issued sale announcements Feb. 7 for two areawide competitive oil and gas lease sales: Cook Inlet and North Slope Foothills. Both sales will be held May 9 at 8:30 a.m. in the Wilda Marston Theater in the Loussac Public Library in Anchorage.
The division also issued a call for new information for the 2001 North Slope and Beaufort Sea areawide sales. The call closes April 9; a supplement to the best interest finding or a decision of no new information will be issued July 17. The proposed sale date is Oct. 24. The foothills sale æ the first areawide lease sale for this area æ covers approximately 7.8 million acres between the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska south of the Umiat Meridian baseline to the Gates of the Arctic National Petroleum Park and Preserve.
The sale area is entirely within the North Slope Borough.
There are 1,384 tracts with gross acreage ranging from 1,280 to 5,760 acres. The exact amount of net leasable acreage in each tract will be determined after the sale — and only for tracts receiving bids. Acreage not owned by the state, already subject to an oil and gas lease, or clouded by title claims will be excluded from the lease. Cook Inlet The Cook Inlet areawide sale covers approximately 4.2 million acres divided into 815 tracts ranging in gross size from 640 to 5,760. The exact amount of net leasable acreage will be determined after the sale for tracts on which bids are received.
Leasing has been stayed on number of Cook Inlet tracts identified by the National Marine Fisheries Service as important habitat for beluga whales by order of Alaska Superior Court Judge Sigurd Murphy. These tracts will be included in future Cook Inlet areawide lease sales only upon a supplemental finding by DNR that there is a plan in place to address concerns over beluga habitat, and that a sale of these tracts is in the best interest of the state.
DNR has also withdrawn tracts 284, 285, 485, 486, 488 and 489 from the areawide 2001 sale. These tracts are involved in litigation contesting actions taken by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission or the Division of Oil and Gas and leasing of these tracts is stayed pending final rulings in these cases.
The cash bonus bid minimum for both sales is $5 per acre. The royalty is 12.5 percent. Leases will have a term of 10 years.
| 