U.S. Minerals Management Service is proceeding with plans for Alaska Cook Inlet Lease Sale 149 in April.
The area being considered for leasing in the offshore sale covers 101 whole and partial blocks encompassing about 430,000 acres.
That compares with 402 blocks covering 2 million acres studied in the environmental impact statement.
The area is between Kalgin Island in the north and to the southern extent of state leases north of Anchor Point. The southern boundary of the sale area is about 15 miles north of the entrance to Kachemak Bay.
MMS plans to hold public meetings in late January regarding the environmental assessment of the revised proposal in the communities of Homer, Kenai, and Port Graham.
It still is developing mitigation measures relating to discharge of drilling fluids and protection of fisheries.
These measures, if adopted, will require operators to coordinate their activities with participants in commercial, sport, and subsistence fishing to avoid unreasonable conflicts. MMS will review activities for potential to affect fishing and may suspend operations to avoid unreasonable conflicts.
A stipulation on drilling fluids and cuttings discharges, if adopted, will prevent discharges of drilling fluids and cuttings during development and production when other methods of disposal are feasible.
The federal Cook Inlet acreage was offered in 1977 and 1981. The 1977 sale included all of lower Cook Inlet, and the 1981 sale included all of lower Cook Inlet and tracts in Shelikof Strait. As a result of those sales, MMS issued 100 leases on which companies drilled 13 wildcats. All of these leases have since expired.
Copyright 1997 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
