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Norton signs decision for northwest NPR-A; lease sale for area and some northeast acreage possible June 2
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News Editor-in-Chief
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton has signed the record of decision for the Bureau of Land Management’s plan for managing the 8.8 million acres of public land in the northwest portion of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
The document the secretary signed Jan. 22 includes some changes to BLM’s preferred alternative.
At the request of BLM’s Alaska Resource Advisory Council, leasing will be deferred in the Colville River special area until the combined Southern NPR-A plan and Colville River management plans are complete.
At the request of the North Slope Borough, a setback stipulation of one-half mile was added for Naklavik Creek.
There were also minor changes for clarity or to correct omissions during planning, and a required operating procedure was added to address cultural and paleontological resources. USGS estimates 5.9-13.2 billion barrels The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that the NPR-A contains between 5.9 billion and 13.2 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil, with a mean estimate of 9.3 billion barrels.
BLM plans to hold a lease sale for selected tracts in the northwest NPR-A June 2. Some northeast tracts along the border of the northeast and northwest areas will also be offered at the sale. Kasegaluk Lagoon special area created As part of the record of decision the secretary designated 102,000 acres as the Kasegaluk Lagoon special area. “This area is important for migratory birds and marine mammals and features marine tidal flats that are rare on the North Slope. I concur with BLM’s recommendation for this area and see no reason to wait,” Norton said in a statement.
BLM will include “no surface occupancy” restrictions that prohibit permanent structures and contain other protective stipulations on any leases issued in this special area.
The final northwest plan also defers leasing on about 1.5 million acres (17 percent of the planning area) near Wainwright for the next 10 years; provides no surface occupancy stipulations along coastal areas, in deepwater lakes, along key rivers (16 percent of the planning area) and in the Kasegaluk Lagoon special area; designates special study areas of more than half a million acres each for Pacific black brandt and caribou; calls for areawide studies on habitat for Spectacled and Steller’s eiders (both listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act) and yellow-billed loons; and implements stipulations to minimize loss of raptor foraging habitat within the existing Colville River special area.
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