BLM extends comment period for new land regulations for National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska on North Slope. It’s not enough, Inupiats say

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has extended its public comment period for proposed changes in land management rules in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

BLM said Nov. that comments will be accepted for an additional 20 days. This is in addition to a 10-day extension announced earlier, and it sets a new deadline of Dec. 7 for comments.

The new regulations are intended to expand environmental protections in the 23-million-acre reserve, an enclave of federal lands west of the major oil producing fields on the slope.

Oil and gas operators, state officials and North Slope community leaders feel the new rules are too restrictive. While they will not affect ConocoPhillips’ planned Willow oil project, which is on federal oil and gas leases in the NPR-A, they could preclude exploration and development of future discoveries like Willow, it is argued.

In its Nov 13 announcement BLM said the deadlines for public comment do not affect “nation-to-nation” consultations on the regulations, which can continue at any time.

Nation-to-nation consultations are discussions between federal agencies and federally-recognized tribes that are regarded as sovereigns.

The agency has been criticized by North Slope leaders for inadequate consultations with tribes so far, although BLM said there has been outreach to North Slope communities.

“The BLM has held virtual and public meetings in Alaska and its North Slope, as well as government-to-government consultation, to hear feedback on the proposal,” for new rules, the agency said in its Nov. 13 statement.

North Slope Inupiat leaders aren’t satisfied with this, however. “The Interior Department (which is responsible for the BLM) now claims to be acting in response to our requests — but this could not be further from the truth,” said Nagruk Harcharek, President of VOICE of the Arctic Inupiat, a coalition of community groups favoring petroleum development. The extension is one-third of the 90 day extension requested by the Inupiats, Harcharek said. “Much like Interior Department Secretary Deb Haaland’s decision not to meet with (a North Slope) delegation last week, and instead deputizing her role to the non- Acting Deputy Secretary.

“Secretary Haaland has continuously offered empty promises, noting the importance of consultation with Indigenous communities, yet blindsiding our region with decisions about our own homelands. She claims that Indigenous voices know their homelands better than anyone else, yet refuses to meet with us,” Harcharek said.

Originally announced in March 2023 and published for public comment in early September, the proposed rule would establish a new framework for balancing development with the protection of Special Areas – lands that harbor significant subsistence, recreational, fish and wildlife, historical and scenic values – and the management of surface resources throughout theNPR-A,” BLM said in its Nov. 13 announcement.

“This framework, which has not been updated substantially since the early 1980s, would improve the BLM's ability to respond to changing conditions in the Arctic while providing transparency in conservation and development decisions. The proposed regulations would also enhance protections for subsistence uses and resources throughout the NPR-A, particularly within the Teshekpuk Lake, Utukok River Uplands and other Special Areas,” the agency said.

Critics of the regulation changes say that the proposed new rules would allow BLM to change and even expand the existing protected areas in the reserve every five years and also to enact a land management standard of “maximum protection,” which akin to standards used in national parks and wildlife refuges.

The NPR-A, in contrast, is established in federal law as a petroleum reserve to enhance national energy security and not as a park or refuge, Alaska’s U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has said.

The reserve was created by 1923 by President Warren Harding as a strategic oil reserve for the U.S. Navy, which at the time was switching from coal to oil as a fuel for its ships.

Although federal geologists saw potential for oil and gas discoveries there was no exploration until after World War II. But despite an extended effort by the federal government beginning in the late 1940s no substantial discoveries were made, although a small oil deposit was found at Umiat, in the far southeast part of the reserve, as well as a natural gas field was found at Barrow, now Utiagvik, which now supplies gas to the community.

A more vigorous explation effort began in the 1980s when President Ronald Reagan opened the reserve to leasing and exploration by private oil companies. It still took years, however, for those efforts to finally yield success with medium-sized finds in the northeast part of the reserve.

ConocoPhillips led the effort in exploring and developing the CD-5, GMT-1 and GMT-2 projects, which are now producing. Eventually Willow was discovered, also by ConocoPhillips. It has now been approved by the government and is to be producing by 2029.