US Govt to Auction Almost 1 Million Acres Off Alaskan Coast for Oil Drilling

The United States will auction nearly one million acres off the Alaskan coast for new oil and gas drilling in December, mandated in the so-called “Inflation” Reduction Act (IRA).

The United States Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), inside the Department of Interior, will put hundreds of thousands of acres off Alaska’s southcentral coast up for auction on December 30 for new oil and gas drilling projects. The lease sale has to be completed by the end of the year to comply with the IRA, which was added to the piece of legislation to win support from West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin.

The auction sale will be of approximately 958,202 acres in Alaska’s Cook Inlet. Bloomberg reported the department estimated that over the lifetime of the lease sales, the area could produce nearly 200 million barrels of crude oil and 300 billion cubic feet of natural gas. However, the estimate would only be accurate if any drilling actually occurs.

Additionally, Bloomberg noted that the lease sale of Alaska’s Cook Inlet was one previously canceled by the Biden administration earlier this year, citing a lack of interest, among other things, but ended up being reinstated from the IRA because of Manchin.

https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2022/11/28/u-s-auction-almost-1-million-acres-alaskan-coast-oil-drilling/