The U.S. government will hold an auction for oil and gas drilling rights in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, the first since 2019, in what marks the latest test of industry interest in developing resources in the state.
The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is offering 600 parcels covering 5.5 million acres (2.2 million hectares) to oil and gas companies.
The sale is the first of at least five mandated by President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” enacted last year. His administration has sought to expand domestic oil and gas production and roll back Biden-era restrictions on drilling in the Alaska reserve.
However, industry interest in acquiring leases in Alaska has been limited in recent years. Drilling in the state is a high-risk undertaking that involves decades of work and billions of dollars in investment. The industry did not even participate in an offshore drilling lease sale in Alaska’s Cook Inlet earlier this month.
The NPR-A, as the 23-million-acre reserve is known, was designated for oil and gas exploration in the 1970s to address energy shortages.
The last NPR-A lease sale in 2019 attracted bids totaling $11.3 million for 1.05 million acres.
Alaska state authorities and some Indigenous groups support oil and gas drilling as it contributes to tax revenues and creates jobs. Environmental groups argue that such development harms habitats of species such as polar bears and caribou.
