As expected, the Bureau of Land Management received no bids for the congressionally mandated oil and gas lease sale for the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The private sector apparently no longer trusts the Biden Administration to follow through.
The deadline to submit bids was Monday, Jan. 6. On Jan. 7, the State of Alaska sued the federal agency and the Department of Interior, saying the tracts were not viable and the Biden Administration was defying a congressional mandate.
“This is no surprise,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska. “From Day 1, Joe Biden and Deb Haaland have sought to illegally shut down any chance of developing ANWR and have said as much. They and their eco-colonialist allies have made every effort to delay, and ultimately kill, any chance of successful ANWR lease sales and have canceled the voices of the Iñupiat Native people of Alaska in the process. This latest lease sale was yet another attempt to circumvent the federal law Congress passed and President Trump signed mandating two lease sales in ANWR. Closing off nearly 75 percent of the 1002 area, including lands that are projected to have substantial resources beneath them, is clearly an attempt to stymie interest from industry. Don’t forget: Companies had already witnessed the Biden-Harris administration brazenly and illegally cancel leases from the first sale.”
Sullivan continued on a hopeful note: “The good news is we will soon be working with the Trump administration which, unlike Biden-Harris, has a proven track record of responsible Alaska resource development, faithfully implementing the laws passed by Congress, and respecting the voices of the Iñupiat people of the North Slope who strongly support the ANWR leasing program. January 20th can’t come soon enough.”
Days before, the federal government took away a lease it had granted years ago in the Beaufort Sea. With a government that can make it impossible to develop mineral and petroleum resources, it comes as no surprise to industry observers that companies are now reluctant to take the risk.
Congressman Nick Begich III commented, “The federal government has behaved more like an adversary than an ally when it comes to responsible development in Alaska. Making a lease sale so uneconomic in its construction that no party is willing to place a bid is not evidence of a lack of interest, but rather it is evidence of a keen understanding that these lands under the current regime have not been offered in good faith.”
Begich said, “Alaskan lands should be in Alaskans’ hands, and I look forward to working with the Trump administration and my colleagues in the delegation to ensure greater self-determination of Alaska’s resources than has been available as of late.”
The expired deadline to submit bids concludes the second congressionally mandated sale required by the 2017 Tax Act, which directed the BLM to hold two lease sales in the Coastal Plain within seven years of enactment.
The first sale similarly demonstrated low interest, yielding a total of $14.4 million in high bids on 11 tracts.
Congress included the two lease sales in the Tax Act on the grounds that they would generate approximately $2 billion in revenue over 10 years.
Of the nine leases sold during the previous sale, the two held by oil companies were canceled and refunded at the request of the lessees. The remaining seven are held by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, but those were canceled by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland for what she said were “multiple legal deficiencies.”
There are currently no leases in the Coastal Plain, which was originally set aside for oil and gas. At statehood, Alaska was promised the right to develop revenue from oil and gas. President Jimmy Carter broke that promise by locking up massive amounts of the Arctic. Through the efforts of Sen. Ted Stevens and Congressman Don Young, the 1002 area was released from that lockup in the Alaska National Interest Lands and Conservation Act, so it could provide oil, gas, jobs, wealth, and revenue for the state.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy predicted this outcome back on Dec. 9, writing on X, “The Biden administration has cloaked its latest sanction on Alaska as a lease sale in ANWR. The truth is this lease sale is designed to fail. It limits exploration to the largest extent possible while trying to pass it off as following the law passed by Congress to offer leases that have a legitimate chance of success. The upside here is that in a matter of weeks the Trump administration will come into office and prioritize safe oil and gas development that provides stable and secure energy. Alaska’s four yearlong nightmare ends January 20th.”
In the Tax Act of 2017, Congress demanded that the BLM put leases up for bid, but what the federal government did was only put up nonviable tracts.
The Biden Administration on Jan. 8 has taken no responsibility for the failed leases, nor did it mention the fact that these leases are subject to a state lawsuit over the administration’s bad faith actions.
“The lack of interest from oil companies in development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge reflects what we and they have known all along – there are some places too special and sacred to put at risk with oil and gas drilling. This proposal was misguided in 2017, and it’s misguided now,” said Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis, who came from the environmental industry’s National Wildlife Federation before joining the Biden Administration. “The BLM has followed the law and held two lease sales that have exposed the false promises made in the Tax Act. The oil and gas industry is sitting on millions of acres of undeveloped leases elsewhere; we’d suggest that’s a prudent place to start, rather than engage further in speculative leasing in one of the most spectacular places in the world.”
“The Arctic Refuge sustains people, wildlife and fish in the northeastern corner of Alaska, a vast landscape of rich cultural traditions and thriving ecological diversity. The lands and waters are a critical home to migratory and resident wildlife, have unique recreational values, and contain the largest designated Wilderness within the National Wildlife Refuge System. The Refuge is located on the traditional homelands of the Iñupiat people of the north and the Gwichʼin people of interior Alaska and Canada,” the Department of Interior wrote in a news release, deciding that it is now also responsible for the people of Canada.
This story will be updated.
No, the private sector no longer views the leases as economically viable. It has nothing to do with Biden.
Only a fool would commit 10 to 12 years to develop an oil field when administrations change every 4-8.
Drill baby drill. Just don’t do it in the United States if your goal is economic success.
“The lands and waters are a critical home to migratory and resident wildlife, have unique recreational values, and contain the largest designated Wilderness within the National Wildlife Refuge System.”
What recreation is occurring there? I’d really like to know.
No one bid during the 1st Trump Term either. It’s all Biden’s fault the MRAK standard tag line!
Not true. Reading comprehension. – sd
Sweetie, if nobody bid on them, then how were they later cancelled?
Haaland’s New Mexico is doing well with the Federal leases for oil development.
The BS by the morally corrupt Biden Administration invoking the Northern Eskimo’s as a reason for locking up ANWR is beyond the pale. Flat out lying.
What would you expect from an East Coast President from a nothing State to look down his nose at Alaskans. Biden couldn’t care less about Alaska’s destiny. He wants Alaska to be tourist destination, kinda like his home State. After all when you come from a nothing non producing State like Delaware, how could you possibly relate to the Last Frontier. Just one more reason to NOT let the Biden money machine off the hook once Trump takes power. The traitor Biden needs to brought out to the light of day.
Can’t trust the crooks in the government.
Proven track record of double cross lies.
It’s certainly true that the Biden administration strongly believed in human-caused global warming and climate change, and it’s also true that the administration opposed any development of Alaska natural resources. Most Alaskans don’t believe in human-caused global warming and climate change, and I am one of them.
However it’s also true that TAPS construction would not be financeable today. It would not be built, and I think even AOGA and the AK Chamber of Commerce would agree. If North Slope petroleum was as viable today as it was in 1973 or in 1989 we would have seen genuine bids from heavy-hitters in anticipation of the Trump people taking over on January 20. At the very least a winning bid would have secured a place in line when the ND Governor becomes the Interior Secretary. That there were no bids makes the gas line press conference of earlier this week all the more silly. That press conference, held by people headed to Dubai at state expense, would have us believe that despite a demonstrated and undeniable lack of industry interest in ANWR (for which a pipeline is already built and 80 percent empty) there is an unnamed petroleum industry financial leader ready to finance and construct a gas line. ANWR and the gas line are the same dream.
The joke is on us! The incoming AK House and Senate majorities will enact huge funding increases for education, a new defined benefit retirement program for public employees, and they will allow the minorities to take credit for whatever the administration says it needs to fund this latest gas line dream. To see the fools we need only look in the mirror.
i agree with what you are saying. The reality of Trump taking over is Trump wants gas under 2 dollars a gallon. When that happens oil is under $50 a barrel. Why would oil companies invest in expensive oil when they have plenty of cheap oil other places. Trump and his DOGE crew are businessmen. The 2017 lease sale was projected to bring in 1.82 billion dollars.The lease raised 14.4 million. This new offering had no bids. I am pretty sure from a business perspective ANWR has been a loser. As bad as Biden has supposedly been for Alaska there are 10 rigs drilling now. In 2018 Trump’s best year for drilling there was 4. I am open for correction if I am wrong on that. The slap in the face Alaska might be seeing is reality. Good thing we have a 40 billion gas line project coming at the right time.
The Bureau of land Management, a Constitutional forbidden federal agency that the government illegally gave land they TOOK from the states. No where do they have the legal grounds to do this, in the Western states this Theft has crippled these economies. All BLM Lands should be returned to the states to be auctioned to the people of those states. Not Cooperation’s but the People.
Especially administrations like our current one which hates the country and most of its citizens. Dismantle the country with the help of climate cultists. Start with the last red state on the west coast and work eastward.
Why would an exploration company or producer pay for a lease knowing full well that four years into the project the next leftist administration will flush their investment down the global warming, I mean climate change, toilet? Venezuela has a more rational energy and environmental policy than the US. Let that sink in.
“……..Venezuela has a more rational energy and environmental policy than the US. Let that sink in………”
Considering the fact that Venezuela has a long collapsed economy and zero economic future despite sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves, why don’t you explain this “rational energy” policy for use to let sink in? Please take special effort to explain the PDVSA, their Dutch disease, and the new efforts to have the Iranians save them from themselves.
We have the opposite problem: a regime intent on killing the industry instead of simply raping it.
The world currently has a petroleum surplus and NPRA is sucking up the CapEx. The ROI is greater in NPRA and risks lower. MRAK spoon feeds the trolls and Senator Strangelove has a press release
“…….The world currently has a petroleum surplus……..”
No kidding? So is the Left now willing to admit that the silly Hubbert Peak Oil Scam was………a scam?
I think of the games the industry plays at our expense. Take Pt. Thomson. Exxon lied for decades about its plans to develop this important, gas field. It got sued- and Sullivan screwed Alaskans by throwing the case Alaska had made that Exxon had lied dozens of times in its plan of development for the field. Now the field is in minimal production- producing a tiny fraction of what it should.
My point? This incredible field sits right next to ANWR. The majors want to warehouse our gas and oil to a reasonable degree in order to maximize profits. That is, to scew consumers. Too much gas or oil production is great for us regular people, but terrible for profits for Exxon, etc.
The last thing the industry wants is too much production. OPEC works to limit production in order to screw consumers. Exxon isn’t complaining about that.