6. Northern Gulf of Alaska - May 1979 



7. Chukchi Sea - December 1979 



8. Bering Sea (St. Georges Basin) - May 1980 



9. Lower Cook Inlet - August 1980 



10. Western Gulf of Alaska (Kodiak) - December 1980 

 Three other petroleum basins, Bering Sea (Norton Basin), Southern 

 Aleutian Shelf, and Bristol Bay had been scheduled for leasing by Interior 

 in July 1975, however, due to opposition from the State of Alaska, lease 

 sales in these areas have been indefinitely postponed. 



Table 1 presents information about past actions and future plans 

 for developing the Alaskan OCS. Dates predicting future development 

 activities are only estimates and will be influenced by a host of factors 

 including date of lease sale, availability of capital, materials and 

 manpower, worldwide and domestic petroleum markets, and Alaska state 

 policies and facility siting regulations. Further, most experts agree 

 that industry is not yet technologically prepared to develop any offshore 

 areas north of St. George basin except in shallow, protected waters 

 where artificial earthen islands can be created for working platforms. 



As previously mentioned, the State of Alaska has leased several 

 offshore areas including tracts in the Gulf of Alaska and Cook Inlet. 

 The great majority of state offshore activity has and is occurring in 

 Cook Inlet where since 1959 a total of 1.9 million acres, have been leased 

 for bonus bids of over $89 million. Cook Inlet Basin (including 

 onshore lands) has yielded the majority of oil and gas production from 

 state lands, with 600 million barrels of oil and 1.6 trillion cubic feet 

 of gas having been produced through 1975. 5 Currently there are 14 

 offshore platforms operating in Cook Inlet. 6 



