Reducing NPR-A restrictions
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Proposed rollback of NPR-A regulation changes mainly impacts "special areas"
Alan Bailey for Petroleum News
The recently announced proposal by the U.S. Department of the Interior- s Bureau of Land Management to rollback additional environmental protections introduced by the Biden administration for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska primarily impact what are referred to as "special areas," that have been identified as needing particularly stringent environmental protection.
BLM oversees the NPR-A under the National Petroleum Reserves Production Act, which was passed in 1976. And the agency maintains regulations that spell out specifically how the agency manages the NPR-A under the terms of the NPRPA. The statute and the associated regulations encompass three mandates: the need to conduct an oil and gas leasing, exploration and development program; the protection from that program of environmental, historic and scenic resources; and the maximum protection of surface values within special areas.
In addition to the application of the regulations, BLM maintains an integrated activity plan for NPR-A. The IAP specifies what areas within the NPR-A are available for oil and gas leasing, as well as rules for where oil and gas infrastructure can be located. The IAP can be and is modified from time to time, provided it remains in compliance with the NPRPA and BLM- s associated regulations. The rollback now proposed by the Trump administration applies to the regulations rather than the IAP -- issuing a revised IAP is simpler than changing the underlying regulations. In fact, the regulations had not been altered for 45 years prior to the changes instituted by the Biden administration.
Special areas The regulations themselves had included three special areas that are subject to particularly stringent environmental protection: Teshekpuk Lake, the Utukok River Uplands and the Colville River Special Area. However, over time, two other special areas were incorporated into IAPs, but not into the NPR-A regulations. Those additional special areas consist of Kasegaluk Special Area and the Peard Bay Special Area. And in 2013 BLM expanded the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area and the Utukok Upland Special Area.
The revised regulations implemented by the Biden administration in April 2024 incorporated the two new special areas into the NPR-A regulations, thus mandating the use of these special areas, regardless of any revisions to the IAP. The regulation changes also made the use of IAPs mandatory in the regulatory oversight of oil and gas activities in the NPR-A. The new regulations also allowed land to be removed from special areas, other than the Teshekpuk Lake and Utukok River Uplands Special areas. The upshot of this was that special areas regulations applied to about 13 million acres of the 23 million acre extent of the NPR-A.
In addition, the new regulations included standards and procedures for amending special areas and for designating new special areas. The regulations also specified lists of natural resources that require protection in each special area and required BLM to designate an official who would authorize activities in special areas, to ensure that appropriate steps are taken to protect the designated natural resources. This oversight process would presume that oil and gas activities would not be permitted unless it is clear that activities can be carried out with little or no impact on significant environmental resource values.
Rollback of new regulations Essentially, BLM- 's new proposal is to rollback those new regulations, thus potentially increasing the availability of land for oil and gas activities while removing the presumption that oil and gas activities would not be allowed without clarity that environmental impacts would be minimal in special areas.
"The 2024 rule significantly expanded procedural requirements and created a presumption against oil and gas activity in approximately 13 million acres designated as "special areas" unless operators could prove minimal or no adverse effects on surface resources," BLM said when announcing its proposed rollback of the regulation revisions approved in 2024. "These provisions not only lack a basis in the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act but undermine the BLM's obligation to carry out an effective and timely leasing program."
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