The Biden administration will offer oil and natural-gas lease sale within the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge in early January, according to the Interior Department.
The agency said Monday it will offer oil and gas leases on 400,000 acres in the coastal plain in the northwest portion of the refuge. The area is estimated to hold as much as 11.8 million bbl of recoverable oil.
The 2017 Tax Act requires the Bureau of Land Management to conduct two lease sales on at least 400,000 acres in the 1.6 million-acre coastal area off the Beaufort Sea by 2024.
During the first Trump administration, BLM conducted the first lease sale in January 2021 that resulted in the agency issuing nine leases. Just weeks later, the Biden administration suspended all new sales, citing deficiencies in its environmental review.
Alaska Wilderness League, an environmental organization, said the latest oil lease sale is targeting ANWR, one of the most ecologically sensitive and culturally significant landscapes in the U.S. In addition, BLM's first mandated lease sale generated less than 1% of the projected revenue, it said.
This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
-- Reporting by Frank Tang, ftang@opisnet.com; Editing by Jeff Barber, jbarber@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-09-24 1802ET
