ALASKA RAMPING UP N. SLOPE, COOK INLET LEASE SALE PROGRAM
Alaska is seeking comments on sales of oil and gas leases on the North Slope and in the Cook Inlet area.
The North Slope sale is tentatively scheduled for May 1993, the Cook Inlet area sale for September 1991. Both were added to the state's lease sale schedule in 1989.
In addition, Alaska expects to make a final decision next September on two other sales involving North Slope and Cook Inlet acreage, both tentatively scheduled for Jan. 29, 1991.
The January sales have been delayed by environmental or legal problems one a victim of the Mar. 24, 1989, Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Alaska's Division of Oil and Gas (DOG) recently reactivated its lease sale program, suspended in June 1989 for lack of funds (OGJ, June 11, p. 26). The state rescheduled several proposed oil and gas lease sales after the suspension (OGJ, Oct. 30, 1989, p. 28).
NANUSHUK SALE
Deadline for comment on Nanushuk Sale 77 is next November.
The proposed sale area covers 1,030,600 acres 70 miles south of Kuparuk River oil field. It is bordered on the north by the White Hills Sale 61 area, on the south by North Slope foothills Sale 57 area, on the east by the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System corridor, and on the west by Chandler River.
More acreage may be added to the sale offering, depending upon availability of terminating leases elsewhere on the North Slope. DOG considers petroleum potential in the area to be low to moderate. One noncommercial oil field, Umiat, lies to the northwest.
After tract selection, another request for comment will come in November 1992, with a final decision expected soon thereafter.
COOK INLET SALE 74
Deadline for comment on Cook Inlet Sale 74 is next Aug. 31.
The proposed sale area includes uplands and tidal and submerged lands in the Cook Inlet region.
Sale 74 also includes waters that are in the upper inlet and lands in the Matanuska Susitna Valley, Anchorage, west side of Cook Inlet, and on the Kenai Peninsula north of Ninilchik to Point Possession.
DOG considers the petroleum potential in the heavily explored area to be low to moderate.
KUPARUK UPLANDS SALE
Kuparuk Uplands Sale 70A will offer 136 tracts covering about 532,831 acres in the North Slope Borough.
The area consists of uplands on the Arctic Coastal Plain between the Canning and Colville rivers, bordering the highly prospective Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The tracts are exempt acreage, with many relinquished leases or contiguous to existing leases.
Sale 70A originally was scheduled for September 1989, but the state's suspension of the leasing program moved the date ahead to Sept. 25, 1990.
DOG further postponed the sale to consider the effects of a recent Alaskan Supreme Court ruling and new legislation on the state's leasing program.
The ruling, in response to an environmentalist group's lawsuit that sought to overturn the 1987 Camden Bay lease sale, raised questions about DOG's procedures in the leasing program.
The legislature then passed a measure to more clearly define DOG's role in reviewing proposed lease sales, requiring the agency to supplement its findings with clarifications.
DOG has prepared a supplement to the preliminary finding, including an analysis of the sale's consistency with Alaska's coastal management program.
COOK INLET SALE 67A
Sale 67A will offer 140 tracts totaling about 550,664 acres and covering uplands in Anchorage, Wasilla, and Houston, in the lower Susitna Valley, near Redoubt and Trading bays, and on the Upper Kenai Peninsula and tidal and submerged lands in Cook Inlet.
The tracts are exempt acreage.
Sale 67A was originally scheduled for June 1989, but DOG postponed the sale to September 1989 in order to consider any proposed changes to the oil spill contingency plans in light of the Exxon Valdez spill.
Later delays occurred as a result of the program suspension and legal problems that delayed Sale 70A.
The latest finding includes a new coastal zone consistency review.
Since the January 1989 notice for Sale 67A, one tract in Trading Bay has been added and about 132,388 acres dropped from the sale.
Copyright 1990 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.