Concerns over a substantial influx of population when the Alaska LNG Project begins may be reduced by the resurgence of interest in the Cook Inlet region.
Rick Roeske with the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District said in his 30 years of experience, oil and gas operations appear to be on the rise.
Roeske: “You’re seeing quite a resurgence in the Cook Inlet Basin because they are large scale projects for what we’re used to, they are bringing another platform in in July is my understanding, so that employs people so that gets payroll, they spend their money locally so it’s a good virtuous circle that we’ve got going and obviously a great summer, it looks like things are picking up and it appears that we have people are moving into the area looking for speculative property or housing, we’ve got people looking for jobs.”
He said that this steady rise in opportunities may help with local concerns about a population spike resulting in an unsustainable economy.
Division of Oil and Gas Director Bill Barron said last week’s lease sales showed raised consistency in the Cook Inlet.
Barron: “It’s interesting to have looked over the last several years of lease sales in the Cook Inlet area, over the last 2012, 13, and now 14 we’re now hovering in or around 120 to 140,000 acres sold on a year in and year our basis which is actually pretty nice but before that it was in the low one hundreds and less than 100,000 on a year in year out basis.”