U.S. Department of the Interior
Minerals Management Service
Office of Communications
NEWS RELEASE
| FOR RELEASE: | June 11, 1997 | CONTACT: | Robin Lee Cacy (907) 271-6070 or 1-800-764-2627 Anne-Berry Wade (202) 208-3985 |
MMS HOLDS COOK INLET LEASE SALE 149
The U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) today held a lease sale for Federal offshore natural gas and oil in the Cook Inlet in Anchorage at 9:00 am. Two bids for a total of $253,967.00 were submitted by Forcenergy Inc.Forcenergy, Inc. submitted one bid for $137,936.96 on blocks 6113B and 6114B and another bid for $116,029.73 on blocks 6163B and 6213C. These combined areas encompass 9,766 acres. This represents approximately two percent of the 101 whole or partial blocks (nearly 430,000 acres) which were offered in the sale. The bid on each tract will go through an evaluation process to assure the Federal government receives fair market value for the lease.
Numerous discussions were held among MMS, the State of Alaska, the Kenai Borough, fishing groups, environmental organizations, native communities, and the oil and natural gas industry about the sale area. Mitigating measures were developed whereby the MMS will require oil and gas lessees to operate in ways that will minimize unreasonable conflicts with local subsistence harvests and sport and commercial fishing operations. The area offered was an approximate 78 percent reduction from the area originally analyzed in the environmental impact statement. The original area under consideration was 402 blocks covering about 2 million acres.
The blocks leased in this sale are adjacent to existing offshore state leases and are within the (8g) zone, a three- mile wide band of Federal waters adjacent to the state's coastal boundary. Under the 1986 amendments to the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lands Act, the State of Alaska will receive 27 percent of the revenues generated from any leasing and development of natural gas and oil resources within the (8g) area.
MMS is the federal agency that manages the nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf, and collects, accounts for and disburses about $4 billion yearly in revenues from offshore federal mineral leases and from onshore mineral leases on federal and Indian lands.
EDITORS NOTE: More complete sale information will be posted on the website by 3:00pm A.S.T.
http://www.mms.gov/omm/alaska/lease/149sale/149salesum.html
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