The U.S. Minerals Management Service has proposed holding a Beaufort Sea lease sale off Alaska this August.
A final decision on the sale, No. 170, will be made in July.
Carolita Kallaur, MMS associate director, said, "Blocks offshore the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) are not included in the proposed notice of sale. By not offering any tracts offshore ANWR in this sale, additional time can be taken to further assess the possible cumulative effects on the refuge.
"We will carefully monitor progress in offshore technology, emergency response plans, and subsea pipelines as part of this administration's unwavering commitment to protect ANWR and its critically important resources."
The sale closely matches the area that Alaska offered in its sale last November. Like the state, the MMS would set rules to protect the bowhead whale subsistence harvest in the Beaufort Sea.
MMS would require industry to obtain certain agreements with the North Slope Borough and the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission before installing permanent facilities within 10 miles of Cross Island.
The agency will defer consideration of leasing tracts off ANWR until the next Beaufort sale, No. 176, which is scheduled for 2000.
That sale will follow Alaska's Beaufort Sea areawide sale in 1999. MMS said results from the state sale would aid its consideration of Sale 176.
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