Interior to allow oil and gas drilling in NPR-A

The Anchorage Daily News ^ | January 12, 2006 | WESLEY LOY

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The Interior Department on Wednesday announced it will open hundreds of thousands of acres of wildlife-rich North Slope tundra to oil and gas drillers.

The land is just north of giant Teshekpuk Lake in the northeast corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, an Indiana-sized tract set aside in 1923 for its oil potential.

The lake region is noted for some of the world's largest congregations of migratory geese, as well as caribou and other wildlife. But it also might harbor huge deposits of oil and gas.

Naturalists fought hard to head off Wednesday's decision, which they say dismantles a long policy of government protection for the land.

"We're pretty bummed out," said Stan Senner, Alaska chief for the National Audubon Society. "The Bush administration is turning back the clock. They're leasing an area that even the Reagan administration believed was deserving of protection."

The Interior action comes on the heels of the defeated effort by Alaska's congressional delegation and the Bush administration to open another swatch of North Slope tundra -- the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the east -- to oil development.

"We defeated them on the Arctic refuge and they've come right back and are throwing this at us," Senner said.

Henri Bisson, head of Interior's Alaska office of the Bureau of Land Management, which acts as landlord for the petroleum reserve, said the ANWR connection is "just speculation."

The real issue on Interior's plate, Bisson said, was whether it was good for the country to continue to ban drilling in the Teshekpuk Lake area. By leasing 389,000 new acres north and east of the lake, drillers will have the chance to find and produce an estimated 2 billion barrels of oil and 3.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

That's a lot.

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At least we get some new area to explore on the Western side of the North Slope fields.

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[C210N]

Interior to allow oil and gas drilling in NPR-A

Oil/gas drilling in NPR? I thought the only drillable resources in NPR would be hot air and raw guano.

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U.S. Geological Survey 2002 Petroleum Resource Assessment of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPRA)
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs045-02/index.html

[Semper Paratus]

For a second I thought a gas pocket was discovered under NPR HQ.

[thackney]

I thought the only drillable resources in NPR would be hot air and raw guano

They also have some old fossils. Sometimes oil is found around them. ;-)

[There You Go Again]

I am an American Super Yuppie....I get the gas for my Volvo from the gas station down the street - not from ugly oil wells...this is terrible....stop the drilling....

[basil]

ROTFLMBO!

[Zeppelin]

HAHAHAHA!

Post of the day, my friend. Post. of. the. DAY!

[jazusamo]

There is no enviro group that thinks that drilling should be allowed anywhere in the United States. They want to preserve our lands and buy oil from foreign countries. We have the technology to drill without ruining habitat, many other countries don't, but enviros don't care.

[brainstem223]

NPR has been drilling into the federal bankroll for decades, and poluting the airwaves, thats gotta stop!

[oyez]

stop the drilling

Don't remind me. I have root canal next week.

[oyez]

I think I discovered a gas pocket last week when I had a stomach bug.

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This Record of Decision (ROD) documents the Secretary of the Interior's decision to approve, with minor modifications and clarifications (see Appendix A), the Final Preferred Alternative as described in the Final Amended Northeast National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska Integrated Activity Plan/Environmental Impact Statement (Final Amended IAP/EIS;amendment). This amendment, which was prepared by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), describes a plan to make available for oil and gas leasing certain lands currently closed to leasing or under a No Surface Activity (NSA) restriction in the ~ 4.6 million acre Northeast National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (Planning Area) and to utilize performance-based lease stipulations and required operating procedures (ROPs) to increase flexibility in protecting important surface resources from the impacts of oil and gas activities. The plan emphasizes restrictions on surface activities, consultation with local residents, and coordinated scientific studies to protect wildlife habitat, subsistence areas, and other resources. At the same time, it makes 4,389,000 acres (95 percent of the Planning Area) available for oil and gas leasing, and defers leasing on Teshekpuk Lake (approximately 211,000 acres). In addition, although the Colville River Special Area (CRSA) will remain available for leasing, this ROD defers offering lands in the CRSA in a lease sale, until the Colville River Management Plan is completed. The findings in the Final Amended IAP/EIS and the decisions reflected in this ROD were based upon an open and collaborative public process. Several Federal agencies, the State of Alaska, the North Slope Borough (NSB), Alaska Native regional and community organizations, and thousands of individuals and institutions shared their knowledge and insights about the Planning Area with the BLM.

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Whoops, wrong area. The discussed area is the Northeast NPRA.

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This is the map from 2002. Note the Northern Section which was not available then for lease.