Furie Operating the Sole Bidder in State’s Inlet Lease Sale
Production platforms in Cook Inlet.
P.A. Lawrence, LLC | Alamy Stock Photo
The operator of the Kitchen Lights natural gas unit in Cook Inlet is showing interest in adjacent lease tracts. Furie Operating Alaska was the sole bidder in the state’s areawide lease sale.
Reinvestment by an Existing Operator
The Alaska Division of Oil and Gas received bids on two tracts covering 5,120 acres and totaling approximately $100,659 in bonus bids, according to preliminary results.
Both bids came from Furie, and the tracts border the areas where the company currently produces natural gas for local utilities. Furie bid $19.75 and $19.57 per acre, respectively, for both 2,560-acre tracts.
“It’s encouraging to see a local producer continue to invest in Alaska, especially our Cook Inlet region” says John Crowther, deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. “At a time when utilities are looking to secure new sources of natural gas to meet local energy demand, reinvestment by an existing operator is a good sign. We of course wish to see more companies and bidding in future sales and are assessing how the state can support this through providing additional data, helping operators navigate complex federal permitting, and potentially making fiscal and policy changes to boost the competitiveness of Cook Inlet development.”
Current Issue
November 2025
A map showing results of the 2022 Cook Inlet Areawide lease sale. The only two winning bids, in orange, are adjacent to tracts already leased, in green.
Alaska Division of Oil & Gas
The Kitchen Lights unit is one of the newest gas fields in Cook Inlet, going online in 2015. Furie has produced more than 30 billion cubic feet of gas from the unit. The company was purchased at a bankruptcy auction in 2019 by HEX, a holding company started by John Hendrix of Homer.
HEX and Furie likewise dominated last year’s Cook Inlet lease sale. Furie submitted high bids on four tracts for $325,605, while HEX won two onshore tracts north of Nikiski for $101,489.
The 2022 areawide lease sale for the Alaska Peninsula, held concurrently with the Cook Inlet sale, received no bids.
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