The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has proposed a new leasing plan for a section of the northeastern National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska that would see large blocks of 46,000 to 59,000 acres leased to oil and gas explorers - a radical departure from the federal agency's current policy of leasing lands in 5,000-acre tracts.
The area affected is a portion of NPR-A withheld from leasing by the Clinton administration because of environmental sensitivities. If the BLM's latest plan is approved and survives an expected court challenge, the lands could be offered for lease as early as June, Henri Bisson, BLM's Alaska director, told the Resource Development Council in Anchorage Jan. 20.
BLM manages the petroleum reserve, a 23-million-acre federal land reserve in northern Alaska.
The large tract sizes are intended to give exploring companies maximum flexibility in planning facilities, to minimize use of land surface, Bisson said.
The withheld acreage is highly prospective for oil and gas and could contain 2 billion barrels of economically-recoverable oil and 3.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, Bisson said.
The agency's plan would still withhold some acreage from leasing and would lease other lands on an exploration-only basis, he told the RDC.
Under the NPR-A management plan adopted by former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in 1998, 840,000 acres in the northeast section of the reserve are excluded from leasing.
BLM's proposal, identified in a "preferred alternative" in a just-released final environmental impact statement, would open much of the area to exploration. Bisson said the agency would allow winter exploration only on 217,000 acres identified as key habitat for molting geese and other waterfowl, as well as for caribou insect relief.
The restriction will cover another 16,000-plus acres east of the lake needed for caribou migration, and another 141,000 acres south and southwest of the lake as caribou calving and insect relief habitat.
Caribou need large areas for movement during summer to get relief from mosquitos and other insects.
"We will let industry lease and explore these three areas in winter, but leases will have 'no surface occupancy' stipulations attached to any permanent oil and gas development," Bisson told the RDC.
On the remaining acreage to be included in the seven large lease tracts, Bisson said some areas would be off-limits to surface facilities, but other areas would be designated for development. "Each tract would have a limit of 300 acres of permanent surface disturbance permitted. This does not include linear features, such as a pipeline," Bisson said.
"Basically, it's a limit on new graveled acreage. We estimate that 300 acres of graveled roads will facilitate necessary production, satellite features and in-field transportation needs," he told the RDC.
"In reality, we expect only one production facility will be located north of the lake and shared by leasees. The remaining gravel will be used for satellites," Bisson said. Satellites are smaller, outlying oil and gas deposits which can be reached by pipeline and served by a regional production facility.
"There will be strict aircraft and human activity restrictions at certain times of the year, when molting geese are present," Bisson said.
The new plan would apply some restrictions not in the 1998 present Babbitt plan. South of Teshekpuk Lake, all deep water lakes will have quarter-mile buffer zones from their shores where no surface activity will be allowed, Bisson said.
In the 1998 plan, only lakes within certain designated areas were given protection, he said. "We also proposed protecting an additional river, the Ublutuok, with setback restrictions. By request of the (local) Nuiqsut residents, we are now referring to this river as the Tingmiaksiqvik River," Bisson said.
BLM would also shift to performance-based environmental stipulations for new leases in the area similar to those adopted in other areas of NPR-A recently leased. By doing this, one set of rules will apply to the entire reserve, Bisson said.
"Performance-based rules" refers to how agencies set out certain goals or standards for protection, giving industry flexibility as to how to achieve them. Previously, "prescriptive" rules were adopted where the government would set down detailed procedures as to how industry would do its work.
The BLM is now in a 30-day public review period following released of the final EIS. After the review period closes, Interior Secretary Gail Norton could sign a record of decision approving the EIS and the revised plan.
After that, Bisson expects lawsuits from environmental groups. The draft plan brought more than 220,000 comments, most of them standardized e-mails and mass-mailed letters organized by anti-development groups.
"The environmental groups that organized a letter-writing and e-mail campaign don't want any additional acres in this area explored, any time of year. They don't want to discuss 'no surface occupancy' restrictions or performance-based mitigation measures, or what they view as compromises," Bisson told RDC.
"They feel that once things get going, the pressures to develop will mean all is lost as far as biological values are concerned and that a spider web of development will destroy the wildlife resources of the area," he said.
However, another BLM land management plan for the reserve survived a court challenge by environmental groups, although Bisson said he expects an appeal.
The agency's plans for the northwest part of the reserve, where leases were issued last summer, were upheld across-the-board in a federal court ruling. "The plaintiffs raised questions about the adequacy of our analysis, assumptions, alternatives and the biological opinion of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, you name it."
A million acres of lands in the northwest area were leased in mid-2004. Bisson said he expects seismic and other preparatory work this winter, and drilling in the 2005-2006 winter drilling season.
