ANWR sale draws no interest

Kay Cashman

Petroleum News

On Jan. 8, the Department of the Interior said that its Bureau of Land Management received no bids for the congressionally mandated oil and gas lease sale for the 1002 Area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a narrow strip of land set aside for oil and gas activities.

The deadline to submit bids was Jan. 6.

The expired deadline to submit bids concludes the second congressionally mandated sale required by the 2017 Tax Act, which directed BLM to hold two lease sales in the 1002 area within seven years of enactment. The first sale, held by the previous administration, yielded a total of $14.4 million in high bids on 11 tracts.

Of the nine leases sold during the previous administration's sale, the two held by oil companies were canceled and refunded at the request of the lessees, and the remaining seven, held by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, were canceled by Secretary of the Interior Haaland. There are currently no existing leases in the ANWR 1002 area, also referred to as the coastal plain.

See story in next week's Petroleum News about the state of Alaska suing the Biden administration over the lease sale.

--KAY CASHMAN