All unleased state land in Arctic is up for oil auction
Less than 2 million acres now under lease in the region
A roughly Taiwan-sized area of Alaska’s Arctic will be auctioned for oil and gas development on Thursday through Nov. 3 in one of the country’s largest oil and gas lease sales.
The sale could lead to a massive expansion of the fossil fuel industry’s footprint in an environmentally sensitive region that is warming up to four times faster than the rest of North America amid a changing climate.
Alaska is offering all unleased state-owned land on the Arctic North Slope to oil drillers this week, said Marta Mueller, leasing lead for the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas.
The leasing will occur on nearly 8 million acres of Alaska state land and waters between the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska north of America’s largest complex of national parks and wilderness areas. Of those, about 900,000 acres will be in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea.
Alaska finalized a plan this year to auction all its state land to oil drillers once annually through 2026. Oil industry royalties are forecasted to be the Alaska state government’s largest source of revenue for 2022.
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