Today’s Key Takeaways: Hilcorp dominates Cook Inlet Lease Sale. Furie focus on gas for Alaska. Interior moves to rescind overreaching coal mining regulations. Why oil prices surged 10% on Iran-Israel activity.
OIL:
Less Than $1M from State Cook Inlet Lease Sale
Alaska Business, June 11, 2025
A lease sale for the Cook Inlet region brought less than $1 million for the state treasury as Hilcorp extended its onshore and near-shore holdings. The sale was the third in Cook Inlet to offer net profit share revenue terms rather than a traditional royalty share to the state.
Five Uncontested Bids
Results from the Alaska Division of Oil & Gas show an estimated $872,072 in cash bonus on five leases encompassing approximately 21,802 acres, with net profit share bids of 5 percent. This is the highest total bonus revenue to the state from a Cook Inlet lease sale in the past ten years.
Hilcorp Alaska was the sole bidder on all five tracts. Two tracts are near the former Nikolaevsk Unit, where leases formerly within that unit continue to produce gas. Two other tracts cover the area of the former Kasilof Unit, which was drilled but not brought into production before being terminated in 2016. The fifth tract is near the Granite Point and Nicolai Creek units, which currently produce gas on the west side of Cook Inlet.
Bid amounts ranged from $9,600 for the smallest tract to $230,400 for the largest, each about $40 per acre.
“Continued activity and investment in the Cook Inlet is needed now more than ever as we continue to try to secure local natural gas supplies for Alaskans along the Railbelt,” says Commissioner John Boyle of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. “The department will continue to do all we can to offer highly competitive new leases in the inlet and to actively manage all existing leases to ensure that known resources are brought into development.”
The lease sale also included tracts in the Alaska Peninsula region, but no bids were received.
GAS:
Offshore in Cook Inlet, a ‘silent economy’ hunts for gas to keep Alaska running
Nathaniel Herz, Northern Journal, June 12, 2025
Deep below the ocean floor outside Anchorage this spring, a huge drill bit chewed through multi-million-year-old sandstone, sending crushed bits of rock back to the surface through a mile-long hole.
The hunt for natural gas, to keep Alaska warm, had resumed.
Here, on crowded platforms perched above the icy waters of Cook Inlet, a small army labors to keep up the extraction of fossil fuels from Alaska’s oldest producing oil and gas basin. After a half-century of extraction, the gas is still there. But it’s gotten harder and costlier to produce — and fewer companies are participating in the search.
Just one large mobile drilling rig, the Spartan 151, still works offshore in Cook Inlet. This week, its five-dozen workers were hustling to finish two new wells for a small oil and gas firm, Furie.
They’re well-paid and well-fed, with cooks dishing out ample servings of gumbo and fish tacos. On sunny days, they can gaze off the rig at the snow-blanketed volcanoes that ring the Inlet.
But the pressure is on: Urban Alaska’s utilities, some of which have warned of the potential for rolling blackouts amid a gas supply crunch, are counting on Furie’s production.
“I’m scared to death every day,” said Michael Duncan, Furie’s drilling manager. “It’s like, ‘We’ve got to get this.
MINING:
Interior Proposes to Rescind Overreaching 2024 Rule on Coal Mining Oversight
WASHINGTON — The Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement today announced a proposed rule to rescind the 2024 “Ten-Day Notices and Corrective Action” rule—a problematic regulation from the prior administration that complicated how states and the federal government work together to oversee surface coal mining.
The proposed rule would restore the simpler, more effective 2020 version from the first Trump administration of the ten-day notice process, eliminating unnecessary layers of federal bureaucracy and putting regulatory authority back where it belongs—with the states.
“This is common sense,” said Adam G. Suess, Acting Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management. “We’re cutting red tape, restoring clarity and respecting states’ right to lead. Federal oversight doesn’t mean federal interference.”
The 2024 rule added unnecessary and confusing definitions, created rigid deadlines, and ignored the clear intent of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, which gives states the lead role in regulating mining on their own lands.
Under this proposal:
- OSMRE would streamline coordination with states, avoiding duplicative inspections and reviews.
- State regulators would no longer be misclassified as “persons” subject to ten-day notices unless they’re acting as operators.
- Complaints would once again need to include a simple justification before triggering federal action.
- Corrective action plans would be allowed as an appropriate action in response to ten-day notices.
- Arbitrary deadlines that delay solutions would be eliminated.
Under the proposed rule, OSMRE will issue ten-day notices when there’s reason to believe a violation exists and will work with states to resolve issues swiftly, in the spirit of cooperative federalism.
This rule supports Secretary’s Order 3421, “Achieving Prosperity Through Deregulation,” which calls on Interior agencies to remove outdated, duplicative, or burdensome regulations. It also advances President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order 14154, “Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation,” which directs agencies to repeal costly regulations and return authority to the American people and their state governments. It also supports Secretarial Order 3418 “Unleashing American Energy” which directs the removal of impediments imposed on the development and use of our nation’s abundant energy and natural resources by the Biden administration’s burdensome regulations. By removing such regulations, America’s natural resources can be unleashed to restore American prosperity.
The Department is inviting public comment on all aspects of the proposed rule for 30 days after publication in the Federal Register next week.
POLITICS:
Iran-Israel: Why Oil Prices have Surged 10%
Jasmin Jessen, Energy Digital, June 13, 2025
Escalating Israel-Iran tensions could disrupt global supply chains, trigger oil price surges and impact transportation costs worldwide
Global oil markets have jolted, with Brent crude jumping more than 10% after Israel confirmed its forces struck Iranian soil on June 13.
The operation, described by Israeli authorities as a “pre-emptive strike” tied to Iran’s nuclear program, has reignited concerns over the stability of oil supply chains in a region critical to the world’s energy flow.
The initial spike in Brent crude saw prices hit their highest level since January, at US$73.12 a barrel.
The American Nymex exchange reflected a similar trend, with oil reaching US$73.20.
Such increases have raised alarms over global energy supply disruptions, particularly if the conflict escalates.