The Trump administration is proceeding to reverse Biden-era bans that have suspended oil drilling on most of the enormous petroleum reserve in Alaska that contains an estimated 8.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the forthcoming policy shift late last Sunday evening at a town hall in Utqiagvik, a coastal village on the Chukchi Sea, as he and other members of President Donald Trump's cabinet embarked on a tour of Alaska to promote energy production in Alaska.
The bill would open the way for oil and gas drilling on the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, an Indiana-sized bloc of land in northwest Alaska set aside as an energy supply for the Navy a century ago.
The move follows an executive order Trump issued after he took office last January when he signed an executive order that demanded a variety of policy reforms meant to lead to more oil, natural gas and mineral exploration in Alaska.
The reserve has approximately 8.7 billion barrels of oil that can be recovered, a 2017 US Geological Survey estimate indicates. And from it, production will be taking off on the back of the expansion of recent discoveries. Alaska has estimated crude production from the reserve increasing to 139,600 bpd in fiscal 2033 from 15,800 bpd in fiscal 2023.
The move by Trump would overturn a politically driven 2024 move by President Joe Biden that reserved 13 million acres of the reserve as "special areas" and barred future leasing of oil and gas, and maintained leasing prohibitions on 10.6 million acres of the NPR-A.
The decree prevented future drilling and oil production in the reserve where operators like ConocoPhillips, Santos Ltd., Repsol SA and Armstrong Oil & Gas Inc. have been operating. ConocoPhillips is developing its 600-million-barrel Willow project in the sanctuary that is expected to deliver first oil in 2029.
"We appreciate the administration's action to rescind the poorly conceived NPR-A rule and release the full potential of Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve to be an energy security, revenue and economic growth source," American Petroleum Institute (API) Senior Vice President of Policy, Economics and Regulatory Affairs Dustin Meyer said in response to the announcement. "Our industry is dedicated to the safe, responsible development of Alaska's vast energy resources, and we look forward to cooperating with Secretary Burgum to enhance American energy leadership."
Burgum's comments were greeted with applause at a heritage center in Utqiagvik, where members of the local community had gathered to welcome officials of President Trump's administration, Senator Dan Sullivan, and Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, and hear about resource development. Burgum, who is chairman of the National Energy Dominance Council, was joined by the vice chair of the panel, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.
Wright forecast further oil development in Alaska - doubling oil production on its producing North Slope - and lamented years of policies that he claimed were "smothering" the state's potential.
Rex Rock Sr., president of Arctic Slope Regional Corporation and a member of one of 13 Alaska Native Regional Corporations established under federal law, stated the 2024 rule to restrict energy production in the remote north was not supported by the region.
Environmentalists had contended that Biden's administration was needed to save a huge chunk of unspoiled land in the Arctic, a huge reservoir of tundra and wetlands teeming with wildlife. And, they asserted, during an era of global warming, there is no necessity to consume the huge quantity of oil contained by the reserve.
The new plan would offer a 60-day public comment period, clearing the way for possible speedy reversal and new leasing in the reserve. Environmentalists who celebrated the initial protections could sue on the flip-flop in federal court.