Cook Inlet Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas One Big Beautiful Bill Act Lease Sale 1

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR <SUBAGY>Bureau of Ocean Energy Management</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. BOEM-2025-0384]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Cook Inlet Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas One Big Beautiful Bill Act Lease Sale 1</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Interior. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final notice of sale. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> On Wednesday, March 4, 2026, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will open and publicly announce bids received for blocks offered in the Cook Inlet Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) Lease Sale 1 (Lease Sale BBC1), in accordance with the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), as amended, and its implementing regulations. The Final Notice of Sale (NOS) package for Lease Sale BBC1 contains information essential to potential bidders, including Information to Lessees and Lease Stipulations. Section 50102 of the OBBBA mandates that the Secretary of the Interior conduct the sale within a specific time period and directs the Secretary to offer the same lease form, lease terms, minimum acreage size, economic conditions, and stipulations as contained in the final notice of sale entitled “Cook Inlet Planning Area Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Lease Sale 244” (82 FR 23291, May 22, 2017) for this sale. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> BOEM will hold Lease Sale BBC1 at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. All times referred to in this document are Alaska time, unless otherwise specified. <E T="03">Bid submission deadline:</E> BOEM must receive all sealed bids before the bid submission deadline of 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, which is the day before the lease sale. For more information on bid submission, see Section VII of this document, “Bidding Instructions.” </DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Interested parties may download the Final NOS package from BOEM's website at <E T="03">http://www.boem.gov/ak-bbc1/.</E> Copies of the Final NOS and sale maps can be obtained by contacting the BOEM Alaska Regional Office: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, 3801 Centerpoint Drive, Suite 500, Anchorage, Alaska 99503-5823, or by phone at: (907) 334-5200 or (800) 764-2627. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Joel Immaraj, Alaska Regional Supervisor, Office of Leasing and Plans, at <E T="03">AlaskaLeaseSales@boem.gov</E> or (907) 334-5200. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <E T="03">Authority:</E> This sale will be held pursuant to the requirements of the OBBBA. This notice of sale is published pursuant to 43 U.S.C. 1331 <E T="03">et seq.</E> (Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, as amended) and 30 CFR 556.308. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Lease Sale Area</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Statutes and Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Lease Terms and Economic Conditions</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Lease Stipulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Information to Lessees</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VI. Maps</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VII. Bidding Instructions</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VIII. Bidding Rules and Restrictions</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IX. Forms</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">X. The Lease Sale</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">XI. Delay of Sale</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Lease Sale Area</HD> In accordance with the acreage requirements set forth in the OBBBA, BOEM will offer for bid in Lease Sale BBC1 all available unleased acreage in the approximately 442,537 hectares (ha) or 1.09 million acres (ac) Cook Inlet OCS area as identified on the map entitled, “Cook Inlet Planning Area, Lease Sale BBC1, March 4, 2026, Final Notice of Sale.” The final list of blocks available for bid is posted on BOEM's website at <E T="03">http://www.boem.gov/ak-bbc1/.</E> BOEM's Official Protraction Diagrams (OPDs) and Supplemental Official OCS Block Diagrams are available online at <E T="03">https://www.boem.gov/alaska-cadastral-data.</E> All blocks are shown on the following OPDs: <FP SOURCE="FP-1">• Iliamna (OPD NO05-01)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">• Seldovia (OPD NO05-02)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1">• Kenai (OPD NP05-08)</FP> <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Statutes and Regulations</HD> Each lease is issued pursuant to the OBBBA and OCSLA, 43 U.S.C. 1331 <E T="03">et seq.,</E> as amended, and is subject to OCSLA, its implementing regulations promulgated pursuant thereto in 30 CFR part 556, and other applicable statutes and regulations in existence upon the effective date of the lease, as well as those applicable statutes enacted and regulations promulgated thereafter, except to the extent that the after-enacted statutes and regulations explicitly conflict with an express provision of the lease. Each lease is subject to amendments to statutes and regulations, including but not limited to OCSLA, that do not explicitly conflict with an express provision of the lease. The lessee expressly bears the risk that such new or amended statutes and regulations ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> those that do not explicitly conflict with an express provision of the lease) may increase or decrease the lessee's obligations under the lease. BOEM reserves the right to reject any and all bids received, regardless of the amount offered (see 30 CFR 556.516). Section 50102(a)(1) of the OBBBA requires the Secretary to conduct a minimum of 6 offshore lease sales in the Cook Inlet Region through 2032, notwithstanding the 2024-2029 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program (or any successor leasing program that does not satisfy the requirements of the OBBBA). This lease sale constitutes the first lease sale required by OBBBA in the Cook Inlet. The statute sets a specific timing requirement, directing the Secretary to hold not fewer than 1 lease sale in that aforementioned area in each of the calendar years 2026 through 2028, and in each of the calendar years 2030 through 2032. The statute further requires specific Terms and Stipulations that must be used for these sales, stating that the Secretary must “offer the same lease form, lease terms, economic conditions, and stipulations as contained in the final notice of sale of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management entitled for the `Cook Inlet Planning Area Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Lease Sale 244' (82 FR 23291 (May 22, 2017)).” The OBBBA was signed into law on July 4, 2025, and contains statutory requirements to conduct a lease sale in the Cook Inlet with specific parameters and timing requirements. All Cook Inlet oil and gas lease sales mandated by the OBBBA must offer the same lease form, lease terms, economic conditions, and lease stipulations as identified in the Lease Sale 244 Final NOS (82 FR 23291), which was published on May 22, 2017. Additionally, the OBBBA requires the Secretary of the Interior to not offer fewer than 1 million acres, or all available unleased acres if less than 1 million acres are available. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Lease Terms and Economic Conditions</HD> BOEM will offer leases that include certain terms and conditions to ensure compliance with the requirements of the OBBBA. <HD SOURCE="HD2">OCS Lease Form</HD> Pursuant to Section 50102 (b)(2)(A) of the OBBBA, BOEM will use Form BOEM-2005 (February 2017) to convey leases resulting from this sale. This lease form can be viewed on BOEM's website at <E T="03">http://www.boem.gov/BOEM-2005.</E> The lease form will be amended to include specific terms, conditions, and stipulations applicable to the individual lease. The final terms, conditions, and stipulations applicable to this sale are below. <HD SOURCE="HD2">Primary Term</HD> Pursuant to Section 50102 (b)(2)(A) of the OBBBA, the primary term will be 10 years. <HD SOURCE="HD2">Minimum Bonus Bid Amounts</HD> Pursuant to Section 50102 (b)(2)(A) of the OBBBA, the minimum bonus bid is $25 per hectare or fraction thereof for all blocks. BOEM will not accept a bonus bid unless it provides for a cash bonus in the amount equal to, or exceeding, the specified minimum bonus bid of $25 per hectare or fraction thereof for all blocks. <HD SOURCE="HD2">Rental Rates</HD> Pursuant to Section 50102 (b)(2)(A) of the OBBBA, the annual rental rate for all blocks is $13 per hectare or fraction thereof, until the start of year eight of the primary term or a discovery of oil and gas, whichever occurs first; then the annual rate is $20 per hectare or fraction thereof. <HD SOURCE="HD2">Royalty Rate</HD> Pursuant to Section 50102 (b)(2)(A) of the OBBBA, the royalty rate is 12.5 percent. <HD SOURCE="HD2">Minimum Royalty Rate</HD> Pursuant to Section 50102 (b)(2)(A) of the OBBBA, the minimum royalty rate is $20 per hectare or fraction thereof per year. <HD SOURCE="HD2">Royalty Relief</HD> Pursuant to Section 50102 (b)(2)(A) of the OBBBA, no royalty relief will be offered in this sale. <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Lease Stipulations</HD> Pursuant to Section 50102 (b)(2)(A) of the OBBBA, BOEM must apply the same lease stipulations that were provided in the Lease Sale 244 Final NOS. One or more of the stipulations below may be applied to leases issued in this sale. The applicable blocks for each stipulation are identified on the map entitled, “Cook Inlet Planning Area, Lease Sale BBC1, March 4, 2026, Final Notice of Sale, Stipulation Blocks,” which is included in the Final NOS package. The full text of the following stipulations is contained in the “Lease Stipulations” section of the Final NOS package. BOEM has posted the final list of blocks available for bid and the applicable stipulations that apply to those blocks on its website at <E T="03">https://www.boem.gov/ak-bbc1/</E> under the Final NOS tab. <FP SOURCE="FP-2">1. Protection of Fisheries</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">2. Protection of Biological Resources</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">3. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 36k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━