COOK INLET FEDERAL ONSHORE OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION

The Cook Inlet basin is Alaska's oldest producing oil and gas basin, dating back to the 1950s.  Production peaked in the early 1970s at 230,000 bbls/day, but is now at about 18,049 bbls/day.

Southcentral Alaska has federal onshore petroleum resources on both sides of Cook Inlet, located west and south of Anchorage. 

BLM-Alaska currently administers five exploratory units (Beluga River, Birch Hill, Beaver Creek, Kenai, and Swanson River) in Southcentral Alaska. These units include Federal, State, CIRI, and Fee leases. There are 27 Federal leases in these units, totaling 16,766.77 acres (as of July 2018) See the following map for the locations of each unit.

In January 2012, Hilcorp Alaska, LLC purchased the Swanson River Unit and the Birch Hill Unit. These units are located within the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.  Since that acquisition, oil and gas production in the Swanson River Unit has substantially increased. 

In February 2013, Hilcorp Alaska, LLC acquired the Beaver Creek Unit, Kenai Unit, and Sterling Unit. The Beaver Creek Unit is also within the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.  Since this acquisition, production from the Beaver Creek Unit and Kenai Unit has increased considerably. Eleven grassroots wells have been drilled in the Kenai Unit. Effective December 15, 2017, the Sterling Unit was terminated by BLM- Alaska.

In April 2016, Hilcorp Alaska, LLC became operator of the Beluga River Unit, located across the Cook Inlet from Anchorage.

Hilcorp Alaska, LLC is operator in all of the Federal Cook Inlet units. Their efforts to increase the oil and gas production from these mature fields have proven successful.