A new five-year plan for federal offshore oil and gas options includes no leases in Alaska waters. The announcement follows a controversial 2022 lease sale in Cook Inlet, in which only one company bid.
In a statement this morning, the Department of the Interior said it’s planning to hold the fewest offshore lease sales in history. The new plan follows the requirements of the Inflation Reduction Act, which aims to decrease offshore drilling and bolster the green energy transition.
According to the statement, the only three lease sales over the next five years will happen in the Gulf of Mexico, which will allow the department to expand its offshore wind program.
The last Cook Inlet sale, in December, was first canceled, then revived following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. Just one company bid for a piece of more than one million acres of federal waters. Hilcorp Alaska bid about $60,000 for one 2,000-acre area in Lower Cook Inlet, and was officially awarded the block in March.
That 2022 lease sale was the only federal offshore sale in Alaska for during the 2017-2022 program. Now that the five-year plan has been published, there will be a 60-day waiting period before the Secretary of the Interior can officially approve it.
