Seismic moves ahead
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AIDEA requests proposals for ANWR 1002 pre-development services
Kay Cashman Petroleum News
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA, is looking for assistance from qualified and experienced professionals to assist in addressing the critical permitting, regulatory, operational, and technical requirements to support a phased, multi-year 3D seismic acquisition program within Section 1002 of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR. The area was set aside by Congress years ago because of its oil and gas potential.
Bidding closes on Aug. 4 and the base period of the contract will be from Sept. 2 of this year to Sept. 1, 2026, with three subsequent optional years.
The request for proposals, or RFPs, for professional services is essential to ensure compliance with all regulatory obligations and to enable responsible exploration activities through careful planning, data collection, and coordination with key stakeholders. The lease stipulations include a long list of required operating procedures, or ROPs, that incorporate extensive pre-planning and authorizations prior to any operations. These include protections for wildlife, subsistence access, and the required coordination with Alaska's Native communities on subsistence use.
The possible work area includes all seven of AIIDEA's leases, totaling some 365,776 acres or a subset of leases to be defined by AIDEA or via recommendation by the agency's contractors based on feasibility.
The work is likely to include the following:
*Stakeholder and cultural outreach and engagement, including coordination with tribal, local, state, and federal agencies.
*Development of a plan of operations. and associated permit applications, such as U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service consultations under the Endangered Species Act, the North Slope Borough, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Section 106 consultations under the National Historic Preservation Act.
*Planning and execution of environmental studies, data collection, and impact assessments.
*Integration of lease stipulations into project planning and execution.
Deliverables may include but are not limited to bi-weekly meetings with AIDEA staff to provide strategy, updates and progress, as well as development of a 3D seismic program and plan of operations.
Lease history The seven ANWR leases were awarded as the result of a 2020 federal lease sale at the end of the first Trump administration to AIDEA, a state-owned investment bank whose mission was to promote, develop, and advance the general prosperity and economic welfare of Alaskans.
Bids for the sale had to be submitted by Dec. 31, 2020, and winners were announced in 2021. Then the leases were suspended and later cancelled in 2021 by the Biden administration.
Recently, on March 25, the Alaska federal district court determined that the previous administration and BLM's cancellation of AIDEAs leases within the ANWR 1002 area was illegal. In fact, the court concluded that the Department of Interior's error in doing so was "serious," determining DOI's BLM "cancelled AIDEA's leases without following the congressionally mandated procedure for doing so."
The court therefore vacated BLM's decision and remanded the matter back to BLM for reconsideration.
The DOI has now indicated that as the result of the court order and as part of implementing Executive Order 14153 and Secretarial Order 3422, AIDEA should get its leases back.
In April, AIDEA received a letter from the Alaska BLM state office indicating that BLM was proceeding with the procedural steps to restore its leases.
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