By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Nov. 1 -- The US Minerals Management Service issued a proposed notice of sale outlining terms for Outer Continental Shelf Sale 195 of leases off Alaska's northern coast in the Beaufort Sea.
The sale tentatively is scheduled for Mar. 30, 2005. The Alaskan governor's office has 60 days to comment on the size, timing, and location of the proposed sale.
The proposed sale area includes 1,800 whole or partial blocks encompassing 9.4 million acres from the Canadian border on the east to near Barrow on the west.
It excludes areas near Barrow and Kaktovik that the Inupiat people use. They hunt bowhead whales, seals, and other marine life for subsistence and live in the coastal town of Kaktovik.
Throughout the sale area, MMS requires that offshore oil and natural gas activity be coordinated with the Inupiat whalers. The MMS also developed other lease stipulations to help minimize environmental effects from oil and gas development.
The stipulations include the use of pipelines rather than tankers and booming for fuel transfers.
MMS estimates that the Beaufort Sea contains 7 billion bbl of oil and 32 tcf of natural gas. In February 2003, MMS completed an environmental impact statement for three Beaufort Sea OCS sales, including Sale 186 held in September 2003 (OGJ Online, Sept. 29, 2003).
The EIS also covered Sale 195 and Sale 202 scheduled for March 2007.