(World Oil) – The Trump administration rescinded restrictions on oil drilling in Alaska’s mammoth state petroleum reserve, reversing a move by former President Joe Biden that put limits on an area holding an estimated 8.7 billion barrels.
The policy reversal finalized Thursday applies to a 2024 rule that banned drilling on nearly half of the 23 million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a rugged landscape of tundra and wetlands roughly the size of Indiana that teems with wildlife.
Biden in 2024, designated 13 million acres of the reserve as “special areas,” limiting future oil and gas leasing, while maintaining leasing prohibitions on 10.6 million acres of the NPR-A. The move complicated future oil drilling and production in the reserve, where ConocoPhillips is pushing to explore for more oil near its Willow project. Other active companies have included Santos Ltd., Repsol SA and Armstrong Oil & Gas Inc.
While the rule applied to existing leases in the area, it didn’t directly affect authorized activities. Still, the regulation drew a lawsuit from ConocoPhillips, which said in a filing its Alaska unit holds 1.8 million acres of state and federal leases in the state, including 1 million net undeveloped acres as of 2023. The company filed applications over the summer asking federal regulators for permission to explore for more oil in the areas, including through drilling test well and seismic studies.
The U.S. Interior Department had already reopened the nearby Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas leasing, following a directive Donald Trump issued after his inauguration. Increasing U.S. production of fossil fuels has been at the center of Trump’s energy agenda, starting with an early executive order compelling a host of policy changes meant to expand Alaska’s oil, natural gas and mineral development.
“This action restores common-sense management and ensures responsible development benefits both Alaska and the nation,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement, adding that the latest move would “strengthen American Energy Dominance and reduce reliance on foreign oil.”
Alaska has forecast that crude production from the reserve will climb to 139,600 bpd in fiscal 2033, up from 15,800 bpd in fiscal 2023.
The Interior Department announced last month it was opening the entire coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, some 1.56 million acres, to oil and gas leasing and planned to hold a lease sale this winter in the state petroleum reserve.
Some criticized the Trump administration’s latest moves in the arctic, citing environmental concerns.
“By destroying protections and opening some of our wildest landscapes for the benefit of big oil companies, this administration is attacking Alaskans’ freedom to live off the land now and for generations to come,” Matt Jackson, Alaska Senior Manager for the Wilderness Society, said in a statement.
But the policy reversal drew praise from Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, an advocacy group that includes leaders from Alaska’s oil-rich North Slope, which said Biden’s move to put millions of acres off limits in the area was done without meaningful consultation.
“North Slope residents, through elected leadership, must be at the table as partners, not afterthoughts,” North Slope Borough Mayor Josiah Patkotak said in a statement.
