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State claims acreage at ANWR boundary 2011 Beaufort Sea sale sets off review of ownership; Alaska now seeking conveyance of nearly 20,000 upland acres at refuge border Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The state of Alaska has been working on boundary issues at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on the eastern side of the North Slope and is now seeking conveyance of nearly 20,000 acres of uplands at the state’s boundary with ANWR. The state will also begin asserting ownership of roughly 3,000 acres of disputed tidal and submerged lands along the Beaufort Sea coastline.
The state said it previously requested the uplands acreage, which is between the Staines and Canning rivers, under the Alaska Statehood Act and Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.
While lands within ANWR are not available for state ownership, the state said the western boundary of ANWR “has been improperly mapped” for many years by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge. The state said the federal agency’s map includes land that is not within ANWR.
“My administration began a thorough review of the boundary dispute after the Department of Natural Resources received bids in 2011 for oil and gas tracts on tidal and submerged lands at the state-federal boundary,” Gov. Sean Parnell said in an Oct. 17 statement.
The Department of Natural Resources said in the Oct. 17 statement that the Parnell administration’s work built on earlier work on the boundary dispute by state and federal agencies. The renewed effort began in 2012 and included historical and legal research as well as a field inspection by DNR and the Department of Law in 2014.
Parnell said he was pleased that the state has “developed a solid case for priority conveyance of lands” which the state originally selected in 1964.
State ownership of these lands has implications for future oil and gas activity on the eastern North Slope. “Just a few miles away, we are seeing billions of dollars of investment at the Point Thomson field,” Parnell said.
“Alaskans have suffered from many roadblocks to resource development on federal lands,” DNR Commissioner Joe Balash said in the Oct. 17 statement. “Our hope is that the BLM will move quickly to convey lands that we can offer for oil and gas leasing and development.”
The state’s request for priority conveyance of the uplands was filed by DNR with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which is charged with conveying lands to the state to fulfill its land entitlement.
Beaufort Sea leases awarded When DNR’s Division of Oil and Gas began working with the Division of Mining, Land and Water to determine available acreage that could be awarded in two tracts receiving bids at the 2011 Beaufort Sea areawide oil and gas sale, they determined further research was needed to clarify the boundary, DNR said in an Oct. 21 statement.
“As a result of that initial work, in 2013, DNR began preparing to assert ownership of the disputed tidal and submerged lands.”
During the research, Mining, Land and Water “determined that uplands between the Canning and Staines rivers also were improperly mapped as part of ANWR.”
DNR said that after a thorough review of the western boundary of ANWR, “the Division of Oil and Gas today awarded two Beaufort Sea leases pending since 2011 and published tract maps for the Nov. 19 North Slope and Beaufort Sea oil and gas lease sales that accurately reflect the boundary.” The leases, ADL 392120 and ADL 392122, were among five on which a bidding partnership of J. Andrew Bachner (90 percent) and C. Keith Forsgren (10 percent), were high bidders.
DNR said the division’s actions were based on the state’s “assertion that it owns roughly 3,000 acres of tidal and submerged lands along the Beaufort Sea coastline that were improperly mapped as part of ANWR.”
“I’m pleased that we are now able to award these leases to the 2011 bidders and clarify the acreage that is available for oil and gas exploration in this highly prospective region,” Balash said. “Our next step is to determine how the State’s assertion will affect existing leases on tidal and submerged lands along the ANWR boundary.”
DNR said that for many years the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has depicted ANWR’s western boundary as the Staines River, “despite legal descriptions that identify the Canning River as the boundary.” This uncertainty over the western boundary “has created roadblocks for state land managers seeking to administer oil and gas lease tracts at the boundary, particularly on tidal and submerged lands along the Beaufort Sea coast,” DNR said.
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