The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management said today that it will offer lands for lease within the NPR-A Sept. 24. The record of decision for the Northeast NPR-A supplemental integrated activity plan was signed July 16 and the environmental assessment for the Colville River Special Area has been completed, BLM said, providing the framework for the oil and gas lease sale.

Lands within the Northeast NPR-A and a portion of the Northwest NPR-A will be offered.

“We are looking forward to this lease sale,” Alaska State Director Tom Lonnie said in a statement. “As new and existing leases are explored we will ensure that development of the resource is conducted in an environmentally safe manner so the important biological, subsistence and cultural values of the NPR-A are protected.”

The lease sale will be held in the ZJ Loussac Library in Anchorage; additional information will be available when the notice of sale is published in the Federal Register in August, BLM said.

Also today the Alaska Department of Natural Resources said its 2008 Beaufort Sea and North Slope areawide oil and gas lease sales will be held Oct. 22.