US to Auction Alaska Cook Inlet Blocks in December

摘要

The Biden administration could offer more than 220 blocks for oil and natural gas drilling in Alaska’s Cook Inlet at a lease sale to be held just before the end of the year. Up to 224 tracts could be put up for auction at Lease Sale 258 under a proposal unveiled Wednesday by the US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The blocks lie toward the northern part of the Cook Inlet Planning Area, from Kalgin Island in the north to Augustine Island in the south, and in water depths ranging from 33 to 260 feet. The administration scrapped the sale and with two others earlier this year citing a lack of interest and legal challenges, but was ordered to reschedule them through the passage of the Infl ation Reduction Act .