BLM seeks input, nominations for ANWR coastal plain O&G lease sale

Kay Cashman

Petroleum News

On Feb. 2 the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management took a key step toward holding a lease sale in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by seeking comments and nominations of lands to be considered for leasing.

"Since passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the BLM has had a clear congressional mandate to administer a competitive oil and gas program for the coastal plain," BLM Alaska State Director Kevin Pendergast said in a Feb. 2 press release. "With the new decision in place, bolstered by Congress's recent and emphatic direction in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, this lease sale process provides a clear path forward to finally unlock the coastal plains resource potential."

The 1,563,500-acre coastal plain of ANWR is a frontier basin with strong potential for oil and gas development, BLM said, noting the area may contain between 4.25 billion and 11.8 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

A call for nominations and comments notice will be published in Feb. 3's Federal Register to solicit feedback on what tracts should be made available in a lease sale this winter, which will be the first lease sale in the 1.56-million-acre coastal plain following passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July.

This announcement comes after Interior issued a new record of decision in October reopening the coastal plain to oil and gas development, reversing the previous administration's plan that offered only the statutory minimum amount of acreage, and placed other restrictions that made development all but impossible, BLM said, noting the Feb. 2 action, "advances the President's direction to unleash Alaska's extraordinary resource potential, consistent with Executive Order 14153 and Secretary's Order 3422."

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the BLM must hold no fewer than four lease sales in the coastal plain by 2035, with each sale offering at least 400,000 acres for lease. When developing sales, BLM can consider tracts currently available for leasing under the 2025 Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program Record of Decision.

Interested parties may nominate or comment on tracts until March 5, 2026.

Additional information, including a map showing available areas and legal descriptions of the tracts are available on the BLM Alaska Oil and Gas Lease Sales website.

--KAY CASHMAN