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Decision over ANWR lease sale program unlikely before June 2023
Alan Bailey for Petroleum News
In Sept. 20 filings in four federal District Court in Alaska cases challenging the legality of the oil and gas lease sale program for the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, parties in the cases have told the court that a decision on the findings in a supplementary environmental impact statement for the lease sale program is not anticipated until June 2023. The court has agreed to stay the appeals pending the SEIS development. Meanwhile all lease related activity in ANWR remains on hold.
On June 1 Interior Secretary Deb Haaland issued an order directing the development of an SEIS for the lease sale program and prohibiting any oil exploration and development activities in ANWR until the SEIS has been completed. Subsequently Interior suspended existing leases that were issued following an ANWR coastal plain lease sale held on Jan. 6 of this year. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, Knik Arm Services and Regenerate Alaska had obtained leases in the sale.
AIDEA has been planning pre-development permitting and planning work, with a view to conduct seismic surveying on its leases
Insufficient analysis Haaland argued that the decision to approve the holding of ANWR lease sales had not been supported by sufficient analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act and that the record of decision for the lease sale environmental impact statement was not legal.
Based on an estimated timeframe published in an Aug. 4 Federal Register notice for the SEIS development, parties in the District Court cases provided the following estimates for the SEIS schedule. A scoping report would be issued in December 2021; a draft SEIS would be issued in June 2022; the final SEIS would be published in April 2023; and Interior would issue a record of decision for the SEIS in June 2023.
- ALAN BAILEY
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