MMS lease sale to offer Cook Inlet tracts

The Minerals Management Service will proceed with a truncated June 11 lease sale offering tracts in Alaska's Cook Inlet. The sale will be held at the MMS' Anchorage office. MMS Director Cynthia Quarterman said the agency developed some protective measures to address the concerns of interest groups, including fishermen, environmentalists, and local communities. The sale will offer 101 whole and partial blocks totaling 430,000 acres. MMS said that was a 78% reduction from the 402 blocks

April 28, 1997

2 min read

The Minerals Management Service will proceed with a truncated June 11 lease sale offering tracts in Alaska's Cook Inlet.

The sale will be held at the MMS' Anchorage office.

MMS Director Cynthia Quarterman said the agency developed some protective measures to address the concerns of interest groups, including fishermen, environmentalists, and local communities.

The sale will offer 101 whole and partial blocks totaling 430,000 acres. MMS said that was a 78% reduction from the 402 blocks totaling 2 million acres that were analyzed in the environmental impact statement.

The agency said it met numerous times with affected communities during the pre-lease process, which began in 1991. It also spent $2.6 million on environmental and socio-economic studies exclusive to the Cook Inlet planning area, including a water quality study.

The sale area is in federal waters between Kalgin Island in the north and to the southern extent of the state-owned offshore leased area north of Anchor Point. The southern boundary of the sale area is about 15 miles north of the entrance to Kachemak Bay.

MMS held a 1977 sale which offered all of the lower Cook Inlet, and a 1981 sale that offered all of the lower inlet and tracts in Shelikof Strait.

In those sales, it issued 100 leases on which companies drilled 13 wildcats. The leases have expired and the wells have been abandoned. There also was a 1982 offering, but no leases were issued.