U.S. BLM finally released the date for Alaska’s second ANWR Oil and Gas Lease Sale!

Happy Tuesday!

We love a follow-up.  We blogged about Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) having completed their Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and their draft of the Final EIS for the Alaska’s Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) back in November, and at that time they hadn’t picked a date for the oil and gas lease sale even though the clock was running to the end of 2024.  Finally, BLM has announced a date of the lease sale and published a Final EIS.     

Did anyone happen to read the Oil & Gas Journal’s Daily Update on December 9, 2024, their article titled, “Biden administration to hold Congress-mandated ANWR lease sale in January”?  The article is on U.S. Department of Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced around 400,000 acres of the northwest part of the coastal plain of Alaska’s ANWR will be available which is the minimum required by the Trump’s Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017, and the second lease sale will to be held on January 9, 2025.  In January 2018, the BLM was ordered by Congress to hold two oil and gas lease sales in the Coastal Plain of Alaska’s ANWR by the end of 2025.  The first one was held in January 2021, after EIS was completed, and nine leases were awarded; however, all the leases were canceled for one reason or another.  The Biden administration in 2021 then asked the DOI to reassess the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program and flaws were found, so the program was stopped until a new EIS could be completed.  The new Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program Supplemental Statement (SEIS) was released, and the 1.6-million acres of the coastal plain was reduced to 400,000 acres to help protect the artic habitat and the acreage chosen has the best prospect of having oil and gas.  Well, it will be interesting to see what will happen during this lease sale and even more interesting may be what the new administration will do with Alaska.  If we hear anything else on this lease sale, we will let you know!  If you would like more information on this article from Oil and Gas Journal, please click the links: Biden administration to hold Congress-mandated ANWR lease sale in January | Oil & Gas Journal.

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