Less Than $1M from State Cook Inlet Lease Sale
Orange blocks in three areas show the five tracts where Hilcorp submitted bids without opposition.
Photo Credit: Alaska Department of Natural Resources
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.
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January 2026
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.
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