The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Thursday said it will offer more than a million acres for offshore oil and gas exploration in the south of Alaska next month.
BOEM, an agency within the Department of the Interior, said about 1.09m acres will be up for grabs in Cook Inlet in a sale set for June 21.
It will be Alaska’s first Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) lease sale since 2008 and follows last month’s executive order by US President Donald Trump calling for more energy production in the OCS, including areas of the Arctic, Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico.
The 224 blocks covered by the planned “Cook Inlet Oil & Gas Lease Sale 244” are in a portion of the Inlet between Kalgin Island and Augustine Island.
Cook Inlet is a 180-mile stretch of water between the Gulf of Alaska and Anchorage in south central Alaska.
