Alaska sets 5-year area-wide leasing plan for state oil lands

Feb. 7, 2002
Alaska has set a 5-year area-wide leasing program for state lands in the Cook Inlet, Beaufort Sea, North Slope, and North Slope Foothills areas.

By the OGJ Online Staff

HOUSTON, Feb. 7 -- Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles has announced a 5-year, 20-sale area-wide leasing program for state oil and gas lands.

Under area-wide leasing, the state offers all available state land within a geographic region. Through 2006, the state is proposing to hold five sales each in the Cook Inlet, Beaufort Sea, North Slope, and North Slope Foothills areas. The Cook Inlet and North Slope Foothills sales would be in May and the North Slope and Beaufort Sea sales in October.

In 2001, the state leased 334 tracts in four sales for $26.5 million in bonus bids.

Knowles said, "Since we began area-wide leasing in 1998, the state has leased over 3 million acres and taken in over $91 million in bonus bids This has been a highly successful program, and the aggressive schedule we've laid out is in response to the keen interest industry has demonstrated for exploration in Alaska. Our schedule provides the predictability desired by industry. It also allows for public input during the fall and winter months, when residents of these areas have more time to focus on the issues."

Knowles said that for the first time in a decade, North Slope oil production will increase during 2002 as production begins from the Northstar projects and due to discoveries and new activity in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

Knowles again urged the federal government to approve development of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and a pipeline to produce Alaska's gas reserves.

"There's no other place in America with the huge quantity of oil our nation needs than beneath a small portion of ANWR coastal plain," Knowles said. "This environmentally responsible development will create tens of thousands of jobs in Alaska and throughout America. We must keep the full court press working with our congressional delegation, the national administration, and the forceful coalition of business and labor to open ANWR this year. Development of our enormous North Slope natural gas resources is also at the top of every national energy plan. Now the question of building an Alaska gas line is not 'if' but 'when'."