The US Bureau of Land Management will offer oil and gas leases within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) at a sale on Nov. 19 in Anchorage, BLM's Alaska State Office said in an Oct. 3 Federal Register notice.
The sale, which includes 270 tracts covering about 3 million acres, will be the fourth within the reserve since US President Barack Obama directed the US Interior Secretary to hold annual lease sales there in 2011, BLM leaders said a day earlier.
Nine previous lease sales have generated more than $263 million of revenue since 1999, they noted. Currently, 207 authorized leases cover more than 1.75 million acres, BLM said. Tracts available for lease are consistent with the NPR-A Integrated Activity Plan BLM finalized in February 2013, it said.
US Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alas.) was not impressed. "The president likes to say he supports production, but his actions tell a different story," she said on Oct. 2. "In Alaska, where the federal government controls more than 60% of the land, there is zero oil and gas production from federally managed lands."
Under Obama's leadership, fully half of the 23.5 million-acre NPR-A is off limits, Murkowski said. "The results of the last lease sale in NPR-A predictably raised little interest-and for good reason," she said.
Alaska's other US senator, Mark Begich (D), was more positive. He said the announcement was a positive step for resource development in the state, but added a lawsuit needs to be resolved to keep development moving forward.
"Production of oil in the NPR-A is crucial for Alaska's economic future and is essential for meeting out nation's energy needs," he said. "That's why I've been fighting to streamline the permitting process, resolve ongoing litigation, and keep development at CD-5 and GMT-1 moving forward."
BLM said only exploratory drilling has occurred within the NPR-A to date. ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. currently is pursuing a right-of-way grant and related authorizations to support development of petroleum resources at the Greater Moose's Tooth Unit. The project would facilitate the first production of oil from federal lands within the reserve, BLM said.
"The truth is that another lease sale is meaningless if the administration continues to refuse to allow development to move forward," Murkowski said. "Alaskans have seen nothing but excuses and delays at Greater Moose's Tooth and CD-5. If companies cannot build roads and bridges to access their acreage, then leases are worthless. The administration knows this."
