GeoAlaska expands geothermal acreage on Augustine Island following competitive tender
Tidal channels on Augustine Island, Cook Inlet, Alaska (source: flickr/ NOAA Photo Library, creative commons)
Carlo Cariaga
24 Apr 2025
GeoAlaska has further expanded its geothermal acreage in Augustine Island, Alaska after making successful bids on a recent competitive geothermal lease sale.
GeoAlaska LLC has further strengthened its position for geothermal development in Augustine Island in the State of Alaska with the addition of another 11,991 acres to its growing geothermal portfolio. This comes as a result of GeoAlaska submitting the highest bid on six tracts of land in the 2025 State of Alaska Augustine Island Competitive Geothermal Lease Sale, held on 22 April 2025.
In addition, effective April 1, 2025, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) converted GeoAlaska’s geothermal prospecting permits covering the southern half of Augustine Island into seven geothermal leases with ten-year terms. These leases secure rights to an additional 10,330 acres, for a total of 22,321 acres at Augustine Island.
Founded in May 2020 and majority-owned by Alaskans, GeoAlaska, LLC partnered in 2023 with Ignis Energy, Inc. – a Houston-based international geothermal exploration and production company.
Augustine Island is in the southwest portion of Cook Inlet, immediately south of the Iniskin Peninsula. GeoAlaska’s geothermal journey on Augustine Island began when its first prospecting permit was issued by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources in 2022.
After conducting a gravity and audio-magnetotelluric (AMT) survey in 2023, the two-year exploration permit was extended for a third year. This survey was followed by an expanded magnetotelluric (MT) survey on Augustine Island in 2024.
These subsurface surveys have identified three shallow geothermal reservoir targets and a deeper reservoir target above the island’s magma storage system located about 2 km subsurface. Power modeling based on conservative volumetric and enthalpy models supports a P50 estimate of 224 MWh. Exploratory drilling is the next phase to further de-risk the project and to refine the P50 power model.
The map below shows the geothermal tracts in Augustine Island. It was annotated by GeoAlaska to mark tracts awarded to GeoAlaska which includes: AI0010, AI0011, AI0012, AI0019, AI0023, and AI0024. These six tracts surround GeoAlaska’s existing acreage on the southern half of Augustine Island. The ADL numbers printed on the south half of the Island represent two-year geothermal exploration permits that have been fully replaced, effective April 1, 2025, with ten-year geothermal leases issued to GeoAlaska by the State of Alaska Division of Oil & Gas, Department of Natural Resources.
Source: GeoAlaska
