The US government has published its plans to open a vast area of Alaska for oil and gas exploration.
The US government has published its plans to open a vast area of Alaska for oil and gas exploration.
The final environmental impact statement (EIS) for a new National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) Integrated Activity Plan (IAP) outlines the opening up of the largest area of federally managed land in the US, estimated to hold 8.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 25 trillion feet of recoverable natural gas.
The area was set aside for its potential petroleum value by President Warren G. Harding in 1923. The 1976 Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act designated the roughly 23-million-acre area specifically for oil and gas development.
US Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt said that the new IAP/ EIS analyses take an environmentally responsible approach to leasing and development, respect traditional uses of the land, and maintain access to subsistence resources. ‘It identifies new management alternatives that examine different land allocation combinations that increase opportunities for oil and gas leasing. These include new and revised lease stipulations and required operating procedures to protect important resource values, as well as modifications to areas set aside for special management considerations,’ he said.
Public comments on the Draft EIS alternatives drove significant changes to required operating procedures and lease stipulations, allowing for 18.6 million acres, or 82% of NPR-A’s subsurface estate, to be open to oil and gas leasing. This would increase the area open to leasing by about 7 million acres.
At the same time more than 4 million acres would be closed to leasing including the previously closed Kasegaluk Lagoon and Peard Bay Special Areas. The Teshekpuk Lake Special Area would be protected by no surface occupancy (NSO) stipulations and timing limitations mitigating impacts on caribou calving and important bird habitats. The geographic boundary and associated protections of the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area would also be adjusted to account for changing calving distribution of the Teshekpuk Caribou Herd. In addition, important rivers include large set back areas extending miles in some places and protections for their free flow and water quality.
The IAP/EIS includes special measures to protect the areas of Wainwright, Atqasuk, Nuiqsut, and Utqiagvik.
