ALASKA RESOURCE REVIEW FALL 2024 32 Lawsuits filed by North Slope residents, oil and gas companies BY TIM BRADNER THE INK WAS HARDLY DRY ON THE U.S. INTERIOR DEPARTMENT’S SIGNATURE LAST SUMMER ON RESTRICTIVE NEW RULES FOR THE NATIONAL PETROLEUM RESERVE–ALASKA WHEN THE DEPARTMENT BEGAN PLANNING FOR EXPANDED “PROTECTIVE AREAS” WITHIN THE RESERVE. This fall, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the Interior agency charged with administering the NPR-A, published a call for public comments on whether the protected areas should be expanded. The presumption is that conservation groups will ask for expanded protected areas and, as long as the current management of the Interior Department is in place, the agency may agree. There is, of course, a problem with this. One is that the newly-minted management plan says expansions can only be done every 10 years. A plain reading of the rule would make this is year one assuming the start date is 2024, when the new rule became effective. The BLM glosses over this with a different interpretation, however, arguing that the last change in the NPR-A rules came in 2013 under Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. That would put us at year ten. Not so fast, says Kara Moriarty, CEO of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. In fact, changes were made to the rules, and the protected areas, in 2020, which would put us at least in year three. Lawsuits have been filed by North Slope residents as well as oil and gas companies over BLM’s new rules and the call for expansions of protected areas, so eventually a judge will have to sort things out. Meanwhile, the uncertainty this causes imposes real costs on Alaskans and the petroleum industry. ConocoPhillips, for example, would like to explore potential new Willow discoveries on leases it holds in the NPR-A. Santos, Ltd. is concerned that its exploration of leases it holds could cover an extension of the new Horseshoe discovery from state owned land into the petroleum reserve. Explorer Bill Armstrong, who heads Armstrong Oil and Gas, would like to drill on leases his company holds in the NPR-A, and where he BLM CONSIDERS NEW NPR-A PROTECTED AREAS Caribou in National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. CONTINUED ON PAGE 34
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