The Bureau of Land Management wants to cut the permitting time for some oil and gas projects in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve to as little as 60 days, according to a Friday press release.
The proposed rule would replace separate case-by-case reviews for qualifying production sites with a standardized process covering common, repeatable activities that BLM says have already been studied extensively. Rights-of-way and some drilling permit applications meeting predetermined criteria could receive decisions within 60 days.
The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska covers roughly 23 million acres on Alaska’s North Slope. About 3.5 million acres are currently under lease.
There are considerably more leases to develop after this year.
BLM’s March NPR-A auction drew bids on 187 tracts and generated more than $163 million, the highest revenue ever collected in a lease sale for the reserve. The auction also produced the largest number of tracts receiving bids and the second-largest acreage total sold in a single NPR-A sale. ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and a Repsol-Shell consortium were among the successful bidders.
Getting acreage leased and getting oil out of it are two very different timelines in Alaska.
Operators still need drilling permits, rights-of-way and approvals for roads, pipelines, pads and other permanent infrastructure. BLM says more than two decades of permitting work in the reserve gives it enough environmental data to standardize reviews for projects similar to infrastructure already approved there.
The proposal followed a petition from the Alaska Oil and Gas Association requesting a uniform approval process and a 60-day timeline for qualifying projects. BLM is preparing an environmental impact statement alongside the new rule.
The agency has already rescinded a 2024 rule that restricted development in the reserve and reopened nearly 82% of the NPR-A to oil and gas leasing.
The administration has also expanded leasing elsewhere in Alaska, including this year’s first auction of drilling rights in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The NPR-A proposal now enters a 60-day public comment period ending November 9. For companies holding acreage from the record March auction, the more immediate number is 60 days, which is the proposed clock for turning at least some permit applications into decisions.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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