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Anchorage— The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced today it will hold an oil and gas lease sale within the 22.1-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) on Wednesday, December 14, 2016 in Anchorage, Alaska.  The Notice of Sale with details about the leasing opportunity was published in today’s Federal Register.

In 2011, President Obama directed the Interior Department to conduct annual oil and gas lease sales in the NPR-A.  In 2013 the Secretary of the Interior signed the Integrated Activity Plan for the NPR-A,  which makes approximately 11.8 million acres available for oil and gas leasing while protecting the important surface resources and uses of the Reserve.

The December 2016 oil and gas lease sale will be the 13th in the NPR-A since 1999.  It will include 145 tracts and will offer approximately 1.4 million acres for lease.  There are currently 134 authorized leases in the NPR-A that cover more than 895,000 acres.  Bids received for the 12 previous sales generated a total of more than $262 million, half of which was paid to the State of Alaska for (a) planning, (b) construction, maintenance, and operation of essential public facilities, and (c) other necessary provisions of public service, with priority to use by subdivisions of the State most directly or severely impacted by development of oil and gas leased in the NPR-A.

“This lease sale is in line with the Administration’s direction to continue to expand domestic energy production in a safe and responsible manner while protecting the subsistence resources of Alaska Natives and the habitat of world-class wildlife populations,” said Bud Cribley, State Director of BLM Alaska.

The NPR-A, which comprises the largest single block of federally-managed land in the United States, is nearly the size of Indiana.  Based on an October 2010 analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey, this area contains an estimated 896 million barrels of economically-recoverable oil and nearly 53 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

From March 31, 2016 through May 2, 2016, the BLM sought public input on tract nominations from lands in the NPR-A planning areas that are not currently leased or deferred from leasing.  The BLM then selected the tracts based on evaluation of comments received, natural resource information, resource potential, industry interest, and subsistence values.

In February 2015, the BLM issued the Record of Decision (ROD) for the Greater Mooses Tooth 1 oil and gas development project (GMT1), opening the way for the first production of oil and gas on Federal land in the (NPR-A).  A second, proposed development project within NPR-A, called Greater Mooses Tooth 2 (GMT2), is currently under environmental review by the BLM.  GMT1 and GMT2, as well as any other future leases that progress toward development and production within NPR-A, would be subject to the BLM’s Regional Mitigation Strategy (RMS).  The goal of the RMS is to identify compensatory mitigation opportunities to help offset residual impacts that may be identified in future environmental analyses of development in the region.  

The upcoming oil and gas lease sales are competitive.  A Detailed Statement of Sale, including a description of the tracts offered for lease on December 14, 2016, the lease terms, conditions and special stipulations, and how and where to submit the sealed bids will be made available to the public immediately after publication of the Notice of Sale in the Federal Register.  The Detailed Statement of Sale may be obtained from the BLM Alaska Oil and Gas Lease Sale webpage.

Sealed bids must be received by 4 p.m. on December 12, 2016, at the BLM-Alaska State Office.  BLM will open sealed bids submitted on the tracts offered in the NPR-A at 1 p.m. on December 14, 2016, in the Anchorage Federal Office Building, 4^thfloor, Denali Room, 222 W. 7^th Ave.