and Kasilof are predominantly Native villages, consisting of Tanaina 

 Indians and Chugach Eskimos. These villages have a mixed economy; 

 commercial fishing for crab, shrimp and salmon, as well as tourism are 

 very important . 



Petroleum Resources 



Geologically, the lower portion of Cook Inlet is similar to the 

 upper portion 1 * 8 where four offshore oil fields and one onshore field 

 have yielded almost 0.6 billion barrels of oil and 1.6 trillion cubic 

 feet of gas. 1 * 9 This may explain why industry interest in Federal (and 

 state) leasing initiatives in the area has been so keen. 50 The U.S. 

 Geological Survey has estimated minimum and maximum recoverable oil and 

 gas resources within the proposed sale areas at from 0.9-2.6 billion bar- 

 rels of oil and from 0.6 to 3.3 trillion cubic feet of gas. Translating 

 these figures into crude market values using $11 a barrel oil and 

 0.95 MCF gas resource values will vary between 0.99 to 28.6 billion 

 dollars for oil and 0.57 to 3.1 billion dollars for gas. 51 



Status of PCS Operations 



The Bureau of Land Management has scheduled two lease sales for 

 lower Cook Inlet. The first will be held in February 1977 (Fig. 5) and 

 the second will occur in August 1980. 



Since the June 1975 Supreme Court decision awarding lower Cook 

 Inlet to the Federal government the BLM has moved quickly to offer the 

 inlet for sale. In September of 1975, the Bureau of Land Management 

 called for nominations on about 450 tracts covering 2.3 million acres 

 and received a heavy response from the oil industry. ' But state and 



31 



