State opens bidding on additional Cook Inlet lease sale

The State of Alaska is auctioning off oil and fuel leases for two.8 million acres within the Prepare dinner Inlet space this month — simply forward of one other lease sale from the federal authorities.

The Alaska Division of Oil and Fuel mentioned 721 tracts can be out for bid through the sale. The tracts cowl Wasilla right down to Anchor Level, each onshore and off.

The sale is the division’s second sale this yr and can occur in opposition to the backdrop of warnings from producer Hilcorp to patrons that the corporate won’t have a reliable pure fuel provide past its present contracts. On the identical time, curiosity in oil and fuel tracts within the inlet has waned additional time, with a small variety of corporations choosing up leases in current state and federal gross sales.

The division often holds Prepare dinner Inlet gross sales within the spring, and over the past state-run lease sale, in June, only one firm — Furie Working Alaska— bid on two offshore leases. For a number of years, Hilcorp was the one firm to purchase leases in state gross sales.

This month’s state sale will shut simply days earlier than one other, within the inlet’s federal waters additional offshore. That federal sale is mandated by Congress, after earlier cancellations from the federal Bureau of Ocean Power Administration.

Sean Clifton, with the Division of Oil and Fuel, mentioned it has a historical past of holding the gross sales concurrently to spur curiosity from potential patrons. He mentioned the division is holding the additional sale in December so the timing traces up once more.

“We’re hoping that we are able to reap the benefits of that this time, after BOEM beforehand canceled this lease sale after which was ordered to carry it anyway,” he mentioned.

The state sale is occurring on-line, on EnergyNet. Dec 12 was the primary day to submit bids, and the deadline is Dec. 28. The division mentioned it’ll publish outcomes early Dec. 30.