COOK INLET OIL AND GAS LEASING
Nabors 106E drilling rig at the Happy Valley drilling project on CIRI lands in late fall and early winter 2007.
CIRI is Southcentral Alaska's largest private landowner, with more than 750,000 acres of subsurface land in and around oil-producing regions on the Kenai Peninsula and the west side of Cook Inlet.
CIRI is strategically positioned to play an important role in solving Southcentral Alaska's energy problems. The company is able to move more swiftly than larger public landowners and has the flexibility and financial strength to structure incentive options designed to encourage aggressive new oil and gas exploration.
Cook Inlet natural gas supplies, the region's primary energy generation source, have been steadily dwindling in recent years. Cook Inlet gas has been considered "stranded" since its discovery in the 1950s, because global gas prices were not high enough to justify building a pipeline or other means of exporting the gas to external markets. Consequently, Southcentral Alaska customers for decades paid 30 to 50 percent less for gas than Lower 48 prices.
Now, however, local demand will soon exceed known reserves, and Cook Inlet gas prices are increasing to match world energy prices. Higher prices will encourage gas exploration and production by making it more profitable for companies to find and develop new Cook Inlet area gas reserves.
CIRI sees a window to encourage new Cook Inlet gas development in 2008 before importation from outside the region becomes necessary, and is moving swiftly to attract new exploration entrants, including independent oil and gas companies.
LEASING PROGRAM
- Negotiable terms
- Bonus
- Rental Rate
- Royalty Rate
- Primary Term
- Work Commitments
- Acreage available for lease year-round
- Low State of Alaska Cook Inlet production taxes
- None for oil
- 17¢/mcf for gas
- Exploration credits
