MMS to offer Alaska royalty incentives
  by: OilOnline
  Monday, March 10, 2003

The Minerals Management Service, Alaska OCS Region, will offer royalty incentives to boost interest in Beaufort Sea Lease Sale 186 in September. Royalty suspensions will vary according to size of the lease and zone in which the block is located. Leases in Zone A near established oil producing areas closer to shore and in shallow water will have royalties suspended from 10 million barrels per year to 30 million barrels per year. In the larger Zone B leases located farther from shore from near Barrow to Kaktovik, royalties will be suspended from 15 million barrels per year to 45 million barrels per year. Sale 186 will include 1,850 whole or partial blocks covering about 9.7 million acres offshore Alaska's northern coast. The proposed sale area extends from the Canadian border on the east to near Barrow on the west. The MMS has developed seven lease stipulations to help minimize effects to the environment and to the Inupiat people from any development of the area's oil and gas resources.