JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) 鈥� The U.S. government plans another oil and gas lease sale for Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 鈥� following two prior sales that saw no interest from major oil companies and amid ongoing litigation aimed at blocking drilling in a region seen as sacred by the indigenous Gwich’in.
The sale will be held June 5, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced Friday. It would be the first in the region under a law passed by Congress last year calling for four lease sales in the refuge’s coastal plain over a 10-year period. But it would be the third in the refuge overall, near the end of President Donald Trump’s first term that has been and another in early 2025, shortly before then-President Joe Biden left office, that yielded no bids.
Drilling supporters, including Alaska political leaders, argued last year’s sale was to draw interest.
The upcoming sale also would be the third federal oil and gas lease sale this year alone in Alaska under an to expand development in the state. There were no bidders in a sale last month for the aging Cook Inlet basin, while a lease sale in the 鈥� where the large is under development 鈥� drew hundreds of bids despite pending legal challenges to the sale.
Bill Groffy, the land management agency’s acting director, in a statement said the success of last month’s petroleum reserve sale signaled a 鈥渞obust and continuing demand for Alaskan energy, underscoring the need for more opportunities like the Coastal Plain sale.鈥�
Leaders from Gwich鈥檌n villages near the arctic refuge and conservation groups vowed to continue fighting efforts to open the refuge’s coastal plain to drilling. The Gwich’in consider the coastal plain sacred, as it provides calving grounds for a caribou herd they rely on. The plain, bordering the Beaufort Sea in northeast Alaska and featuring rolling hills and tundra, also provides habitat for wildlife including muskoxen and migratory birds.
鈥淭he Trump Administration鈥檚 relentless push to auction off this sacred land despite overwhelming public opposition and industry that has already signaled they are not interested makes clear that this administration values corporate interests over the rights and lives of Indigenous peoples,” Galen Gilbert, first chief of Arctic Village Council, said in a statement. 鈥淲e will continue to fight with every tool available to protect the Coastal Plain for our children and all future generations.鈥�
in the region spans decades.
Leaders of Kaktovik, an I帽upiaq community within the refuge, consider responsible development key to their region鈥檚 economic well-being and have welcomed efforts by the Trump administration to open more lands for drilling.
The Bureau of Land Management has said the coastal plain could contain 4.25 billion to 11.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil, but there is limited information about the amount and quality of oil. Meanwhile, conservation groups see the refuge as the crown jewel of the country’s refuge system and a place that should be off-limits to development. The refuge itself is the largest in the country, covering an area roughly the size of South Carolina.
Andy Moderow, senior director of policy at Alaska Wilderness League, said the planned sale 鈥渟imply runs counter to common sense.鈥�
鈥淎ny oil and gas company that is even thinking about buying these leases should know that, if they do, they will be sending a clear message to the American people that no place in Alaska is too sacred to drill in a quest for corporate profits,鈥� he said in a statement urging companies to sit out the sale.
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