Trump administration set to take bids in federal oil and gas lease sale in Alaska’s Cook Inlet

The Trump administration is soliciting bids for what it intends to be the first in an annual series of oil and gas lease sales in federal waters of Southcentral Alaska’s Cook Inlet.

The upcoming sale will offer about 1 million acres in Cook Inlet, with bids to be opened on March 4, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said on Friday.

The auction has been named the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act Lease Sale 1” because it is the first of six lease sales mandated under the sweeping tax and budget bill passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump last summer. The six sales are to be held by 2032, under the bill.

“Regular and predictable federal leasing is the minimum standard for maintaining domestic energy production,” BOEM Acting Director Matt Giacona said in a statement. “Energy security is national security, and this sale reflects a clear, congressionally mandated path forward for Cook Inlet leasing. By offering predictable terms and a transparent process, we are supporting Alaska’s role in meeting America’s energy needs, strengthening national readiness and creating opportunities for investment and jobs.”

Environmentalists criticized the planned sales.

“The relentless push for more oil drilling in Cook Inlet won’t solve Alaska’s energy problems but it will bring a massive risk to this already stressed and polluted waterway,” Cooper Freeman, Alaska director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “The federal government is required to protect our oceans and the fish and wildlife that call them home, but Trump is ignoring that responsibility. From critically endangered Cook Inlet belugas to salmon and razor clams, this sale puts so many species in the crosshairs of a devastating oil spill,” the statement said.

The federal lease sale coincides with the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas’ scheduled annual lease sale for state territory in the Cook Inlet basin. Results of the state lease sale, which is offering 2.9 million offshore and onshore acres, will also be released on March 4.

The planned “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” Cook Inlet lease sales are in addition to several sales that the administration has proposed for nearly all areas of federal waters off Alaska, from the High Arctic to the Gulf of Alaska waters south of the Kodiak Archipelago and the Aleutian chain. The proposed lease sales are listed in a new five-year draft plan released by BOEM in November.

Cook Inlet oil and gas lease sales, whether conducted by the state or federal government, have drawn little interest in recent years. The state’s 2025 lease sale drew five bids, and the most recent federal sale, held at the end of 2022, drew only one bid.