The U.S. State of Alaska is offering offshore and onshore acreage for oil and gas exploration as part of its latest lease sale. The bid opening will be held in June.
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil and Gas (DO&G), announced on Friday that the public bid opening for the Alaska Peninsula Areawide 2017 Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale (APA 2017) and the Cook Inlet Areawide 2017W (CIA 2017W) competitive oil and gas lease sales will be held at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, June 21, 2017.
The Alaska Peninsula Areawide lease sale encompasses about 4 million gross onshore acres and 1.75 million gross acres of offshore state waters. There are 1,047 tracts ranging in size from 640 to 5,760 acres. The sale area is located on the north side of the Alaska Peninsula. It stretches from the Nushagak Peninsula in the north, then south and west to the vicinity of Cold Bay. The sale area lies within the Aleutians East Borough, Bristol Bay Borough, Lake & Peninsula Borough, and the Dillingham Census Area.
The Cook Inlet Areawide lease sale encompasses about 4.2 million gross acres divided into 815 tracts currently ranging in size from 640 to 5,760 acres. These tracts are located within the Municipality of Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna and Kenai Boroughs, and consist of state-owned uplands located in the Matanuska and Susitna river valleys generally south and west of Houston and Wasilla, the Anchorage bowl, and the western shore of Cook Inlet from Beluga River to Harriet Point.
The lease sale area also includes the tide and submerged lands in upper Cook Inlet from Knik Arm and Turnagain Arm south to Anchor Point and Tuxedni Bay. The area is bounded on the east by the Chugach and Kenai Mountains and on the west by the Aleutian Range.
The deadline to qualify to bid is set for June 16 and the deadline for DO&G to receive all bids is set for June 19. The opening of bids will be held on June 21. Primary lease terms for all acreage is ten years.