Alaska critical to U.S. energy strategy, federal government says

The U.S. Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said Hilcorp Alaska LLC was the lone high-bidder for a lease sale in the federal waters of the Cook Inlet off the state's southern coast. The lease, the first in nearly a decade, brought in $3 million in high bids from the company.

Alaska is on the brink of a credit downgrade because the lack of a budget for fiscal year 2018. Walter Cruickshank, the acting director for the BOEM, said the lease could help stimulate energy development in Alaska, while advancing U.S. President Donald Trump's agenda to push the oil and gas sector into dominance.

"Expanded oil and gas production is critical to America's economic and energy security, as we move to strengthen the Nation's energy independence in accordance with the administration's goals," he said in a statement.

A 2011 study from the U.S. Geological Survey put the reserve estimate at a mean 599 million barrels of oil and a mean 19 trillion cubic feet of natural gas for technically recoverable undiscovered resources onshore and in state waters that are part of the Cook Inlet.

The region hosts three active refineries and a gas storage facility. Environmental groups have expressed concern that oil and gas activity would threaten the marine ecosystem but the state in 2005 found safeguards were in place to help preserve the region's pristine environment.

The Trump administration has signaled it would include parts of Alaska above the Arctic Circle in its broader lease plan. Trustees for Alaska, a conservation group, said the federal government was disregarding the interests of "all the other Alaskans and Americans" keen on protecting sensitive areas against oil and gas interests.

The BOEM said the lease terms include measures to "avoid potential conflicts associated with oil and gas development in the region."

The last lease in the Gulf of Mexico secured nearly $275 million in high bids.