The State of Alaska brought in more than $870,000 from this year’s Cook Inlet oil and gas lease sale, the highest total bonus revenue from the area in a decade, according to figures released Tuesday by the Alaska Division of Oil & Gas.
Hilcorp Alaska, LLC was the sole bidder, acquiring five leases totaling approximately 21,800 acres in Cook Inlet. The company offered net profit share bids of 5% on each lease, a structure now in its third year of use in the region, replacing the state’s traditional royalty share model.
No bids were received in the state’s simultaneous lease sale for the Alaska Peninsula.
Hilcorp’s winning bids include two tracts near the former Nikolaevsk Unit, where gas production is ongoing, and two near the defunct Kasilof Unit, which was drilled but never developed before termination in 2016. The fifth tract sits near the Granite Point and Nicolai Creek units, which currently produce gas on Cook Inlet’s west side.
“Continued activity and investment in the Cook Inlet is needed now more than ever as we continue to try to secure local natural gas supplies for Alaskans along the Railbelt,” said Alaska Department of Natural Resources Commissioner John Boyle in a statement. “The Department will continue to do all we can to offer highly competitive new leases in the Inlet and to actively manage all existing leases to ensure that known resources are brought into development.”
Full results are available on the Division of Oil & Gas website.