A lease sale in the NPR by 1998?

• Author: Ehm, Arlen
• Position: Lease sale evaluation within National Petroleum Reserve

The Alaskan oil and gas industry is obviously pleased by the Department of the Interior's decision to evaluate the possibility of a lease sale within the National Petroleum Reserve, Alaska in the near future. The BLM is compiling an environmental impact statement with assistance from the MMS, a sister agency. The draft version of this EIS was completed in October of this year and become publicly available this month. The final version is due in June, and the Secretary of the Interior will make a record of decision by July of 1998. A lease sale could follow shortly, if that is the decision. Five alternatives are being considered. They range from offering everything for lease to offering nothing, along with three other alternatives.

NPR-A was the site of investigations by the U.S. Government from 1944-52 and from 1974-82. These investigations resulted in the collection of significant amounts of regional geologic data, as well as the discovery of natural gas at Barrow.

The BLM subsequently leased 1.4 million acres in four lease sales over a two-year period leading to the drilling of only one well. All of the acreage has now reverted to the BLM. Why the sudden, intense industry interest now, if they spent $85 million on leases and obtained only one dry hole? The two answers are the Alpine Field and 3-D seismic technology. The Alpine project being developed in the Colville River area by ARCO, Anadarko and Union Texas Petroleum has proceeded, to a large extent, with the utilization of 3-D seismic technology.

In July, Deborah L. Williams...