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BLM offers 900 NPR-A tracts
The federal Bureau of Land Management will offer 900 tracts in its fall National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska oil and gas lease sale. In announcing the offering Oct. 25 the agency said its December sale will be the first to offer 900 tracts within NPR-A, and said this offering was “in keeping with the Administration’s goal of achieving American energy dominance.”
BLM had issued a broad NPR-A information call in August covering “all unleased tracts ... including tracts currently unavailable for leasing under the 2013 NPR-A Integrated Activity Plan,” but said at that time that only unleased tracts included in the 2013 NPR-A Integrated Activity Plan would be offered at the 2017 sale. The agency said that in response to its call it “received numerous comments and nominations on tracts available and unavailable for leasing.”
BLM will open sealed bids submitted at 1 p.m. Dec. 6 and, as last year, will livestream the bid opening.
Jobs and energy “In May, I put my hand on TAPS and pledged to help fill it by putting Alaskans back to work on the North Slope. This large and unprecedented sale in Alaska will help achieve our goal of American Energy Dominance,” Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said in the sale announcement, adding that responsible development of oil and gas resources in Alaska creates “good-paying local jobs and revenue for the communities while protecting vital subsistence resources that Alaska Native communities depend on.”
“Responsible development in the NPR-A will strengthen our economy, begin to refill our Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, and generate new wealth to create prosperity and reduce our deficits,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
“Exploration and development of the NPR-A offers a promising opportunity to fill TAPS, boost Alaska’s economy, and protect America’s energy security,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.
Congressman Don Young, R-Alaska, thanked the president and Zinke “for their work and commitment towards American energy dominance, an effort that is only made possible by Alaska’s vast energy resources.”
“BLM Alaska is committed to supporting energy development while fostering responsible stewardship of the environment,” said Karen Mouritsen, acting state director for BLM Alaska. She said this and future NPR-A sales demonstrate the administration’s commitment to long-term energy strength and economic growth in Alaska.
North Slope Borough Mayor Harry K. Brower Jr. said he welcomed the announcement, and said it demonstrates the secretary’s “commitment to maximize the tracts offered for sale in NPR-A lease sales while striking a balance between promoting development and protecting subsistence and surface resources.”
There was also objection to the decision.
Nicole Whittington-Evans, Alaska regional director of The Wilderness Society, said the NPR-A announcement “reflects the current administration’s wholesale approach to turning over America’s public lands to the highest bidders for development.”
“We need a thoughtful, careful approach that emphasizes responsible development and recognizes that some places are simply too special to drill,” she said.
Some 1.3 million acres leased The Dec. 6 sale will be the 13th in NPR-A since 1999, BLM said, with the 900 tracts to be offered, some 10.3 million acres, constituting all tracts designated as available for development in the 2013 Record of Decision for the Integrated Activity Plan/Environmental Impact Statement for NPR-A.
Under the 2013 Integrated Activity Plan 11.8 million acres, 52 percent of NPR-A, are available for some leasing.
There are 189 authorized leases in NPR-A currently, covering more than 1.37 million acres. Bids received in the 12 previous sales generated more than $280 million, half of which was paid to the state, the agency said.
On existing NPR-A leases ConocoPhillips Alaska is developing Greater Mooses Tooth 1 and the company’s Greater Mooses Tooth 2 project is under environmental review by BLM.
Revising Integrated Activity Plan As part of an announcement he made in May to the Alaska Oil and Gas Association’s annual conference, Zinke called for preparation of a schedule for revising the NPR-A Integrated Activity Plan, along with evaluating how to maximize the number of tracts to be offered in the next NPR-A sale under terms of the current plan and preparing a plan to update the assessment of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources on the North Slope, with a focus on NPR-A and on the 1002 Area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The current Integrated Activity Plan, finalized in 2012, places much of the northern part of NPR-A off limits to oil and gas leasing and development. The area in question is the focus of recent interest because of the prolific oil play associated with recent discoveries in the Nanushuk and Torok formations on state land that appears to cross the northern part of NPR-A (see story in June 4 issue of Petroleum News).
- KRISTEN NELSON
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