US to Lease 8 Million Acres in Alaska for Drilling
Date: 24-Aug-06
Country: US
Author: Tom Doggett
The acres to be leased will be on 696 tracts in the northeast and northwest areas of the National Petroleum Reserve. Environmentalists are especially concerned because 373,000 acres north of the reserve's wetland-rich Teshekpuk Lake will also be offered for lease for the first time.
About 183,200 acres relinquished since a 2002 lease sale will also be reoffered to energy companies.
The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management, which will conduct the lease sale Sept. 27, said the reserve's energy supplies are needed and steps will be taken to limit the impact of drilling at biologically sensitive areas near Teshekpuk Lake.
The reserve is estimated to hold between 5.9 billion and 13.2 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 39 trillion to 83 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Two billion barrels of oil may be around Teshekpuk Lake alone.
"This is a significant amount of oil that will help decrease our dependence on imported oil," said BLM Acting Alaska Director Julia Dougan.
The United States consumes close to 21 million barrels of oil a day and must import 60 percent of that amount.
However, drilling opponents argue the new oil is not worth the risk of harming the habitat for the reserve's wildlife, some of which native Inupiat residents depend on for food.
"The Teshekpuk Lake area is biologically rich nursery grounds for birds from many continents and mammals which sustain our Inupiat families and communities and must be protected from leasing activities," said Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, former mayor of the Inupiat village of Nuiqsut, the community closest to Teshekpuk Lake.
The BLM said some of the reserve's sensitive areas, home to geese, waterfoul and caribou, will be monitored and studied for another three years before exploration activities could be authorized beyond the winter months when animals migrate.
Green groups also questioned whether new areas in Alaska should be opened to drilling so soon after BP Plc shut down part of the Prudhoe Bay oilfield due to pipeline corrosion.
"It doesn't make sense that (BLM) is moving ahead with a drilling plan for Teshekpuk Lake at the same time that we, as a nation, are still trying to figure out the extent of the safety problems involved in North Slope oil and gas infrastructure," said Natalie Brandon, Policy Director for Alaska Wilderness League.
The 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve, about the size of Indiana, was created in 1923 to provide energy supplies for the US military.
It is located in the northwest corner of Alaska, near the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that the Bush administration has eagerly sought to open to drilling but so far has been unable to convince Congress to do so.