Alaska to sell again oil tracts

June 30, 1997 The state of Alaska plans to try again to sell hundreds of thousands of acres of on- and offshore Cook Inlet oil and gas leases rejected by bidders at a controversial sale last winter. The tracts to be re-offered in Lease Sale 85A-W in February total 761,000 acres, the state said this week. They lie on and along the west side of the Kenai Peninsula between Point Possession and Ninilchik; on and along the west shore of Cook Inlet; on and around Kalgin Island; and in Turnagain Arm's Chickaloon Bay. The state's first attempt, Lease Sale 85A, sparked vociferous protests and a court challenge from environmentalists before it was finally staged last December. But it drew only lukewarm interest from the oil industry. Of 234 tracts offered, 190 attracted no bids.