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NPR-A NE sale down half a million acres Interior Department to offer 1.8 million acres, down from 2.3 million in original proposal; migratory bird, caribou concerns cited Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
A broad swath of lands south of Teshekpuk Lake, some half a million acres, has been cut from an August lease sale for the Northeast planning area of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management said in a July 9 statement that it will offer 190 tracts, some 1.8 million acres, in the Aug. 11 sale for the NPR-A Northeast planning area.
BLM originally proposed to offer 241 tracts, 2.3 million acres.
According to the map of the 2.3 million-acre proposed sale area, acreage north of Teshekpuk Lake was excluded along with the lake itself and 29 tracts around the southern and western shoreline of the lake or adjacent to shoreline tracts.
In the map of lease tracts for the August sale, released July 9, the area south of the lake which will not be offered in the sale has grown from 29 tracts to 80.
Acreage within Teshekpuk Lake, along the shoreline and north of the lake has been withheld from earlier sales. BLM said in sale documentation that some 430,000 acres north and east of Teshekpuk Lake have been deferred from leasing until 2018 and 219,000 acres consisting of the lake and its islands were classified as unavailable for leasing in 2008.
A portion of the 500,000-acre excluded area south of the lake, 170,000 acres, was withheld because of migratory bird and caribou habitat concerns, BLM said.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said the sale reflects the Obama administration’s “continuing efforts to encourage environmentally responsible development of domestic energy resources, including fossil fuels, to reduce our nation’s heavy dependence on imported oil. It also demonstrates our continuing commitment to protect and conserve wildlife and their habitat on sensitive public lands with exceptional ecological value.”
Bird, caribou buffer BLM did not explain the entire half-million acre withdrawal, but said generally that lands in a buffer zone around Teshekpuk Lake were withdrawn because of the importance of the lake to migratory birds. BLM said there is “internationally significant molting habitat for black brant, Canada geese and greater white-fronted geese” around the lake.
The agency said several administrations have agreed on withholding the lake (219,000 acres) and areas to the north from leasing. The 430,000 acres north and east of the lake have been deferred until 2018.
BLM said this sale also holds back some 170,000 acres south of the lake “because of migratory bird and caribou habitat concerns.”
While the Teshekpuk caribou herd has almost doubled in recent years, from some 35,000 to some 70,000 animals, “BLM has agreed that the herd’s biology justifies holding back a significant number of potential leases south of Teshekpuk Lake so that the agency can update its understanding of the herd’s needs and land use,” the agency said.
BLM said the herd is particularly important to village subsistence hunters, who take about 5 percent of the herd in an average year.
Some 3 million acres under lease There are currently 310 authorized oil and gas leases in NPR-A, some 3,026,633 acres, BLM said.
Leased acreage in NPR-A Northeast is some 1.2 million acres, which BLM said is some 25 percent of the planning area.
BLM has held five sales in NPR-A, beginning with a Northeast sale in 1999. In the most recent sale, in 2008, tracts in both the northeast and northwest planning areas were offered.
Drilling activity under current leases began in 2000 with four wells drilled by ARCO Alaska (now ConocoPhillips Alaska). A total of 29 wells have been drilled on leases issued in sales beginning in 1999. In addition to ConocoPhillips, wells have been drilled by BP, Anadarko Petroleum and FEX.
BLM described the area being offered for lease as acreage closest to existing infrastructure such as the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and to areas of known development potential.
There is no current production from NPR-A, but ConocoPhillips Alaska is the operator for two units in the NPR-A Northeast planning area, Greater Mooses Tooth, approved in January 2009, and Bear Tooth unit, approved in August 2009.
Bids will be opened at 9 a.m. at the Wilda Marston Theater at the ZJ Loussac Public Library in Anchorage.
The detailed statement of sale is available online at www.blm.gov/ak.
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