State development corporation advertises for contractor to do winter exploration in Arctic refuge, betting permission will be given

The state development agency that holds seven federal oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain is pressing the Department of the Interior for permission to do preliminary exploration this winter.

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA, is soliciting bids from contractors to do a seismic survey across its leases when cold weather conditions permit.

AIDEA won the leases, which include 366,000 acres, in a federal lease sale held in early 2021 just as former President Donald Trump was leaving office.

A few days later incoming President Joe Biden, who opposes drilling in the refuge, announced that he would seek to block activity on the leases.

In advertising for bidders for seismic, a traditional, low-impact stage of early exploration, AIDEA is betting that a new Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement now under preparation by the U.S. Interior Department for ANWR will allow the seismic work to be done.

“We want to be prepared to move quickly if the opportunity Is there,” said Josie Wilson, spokesperson for AIDEA. Winter is the only time that seismic can be done in the Arctic because the frozen ground prevents damage to the surface.

Bids on the work are due Sept. 8 and a pre-bid conference will be held with contractors Aug. 28, Wilson said. Contractors must be ready to go in December so that the exploration is done before spring.

AIDEA filed a lawsuit against Interior, arguing that the agency’s action earlier not to approve seismic violated terms in its leases allowing access, but Alaska U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason upheld the Interior Department’s refusal to approve initial exploration activities. Interior argued it must complete the additional environmental review, to which Gleason agreed.

AIDEA or other entities have attempted to conduct seismic surveys on the refuge coastal plain previously.

In 2021, AIDEA announced that it had awarded a contract to SAExploration to do preparatory work for a seismic program. The authority had authorized up to $1.5 million for that seismic work. The contract with SAExploration expired at the end of 2022.

The earlier efforts, however, were stymied by failure to secure permits to disturb polar bears, which inhabit the coastal plain area.

Exploration in the ANWR has been a political hot button for years. Congress created the refuge in 1980 in the Alaska National Interest Lands and Conservation Act, or ANILCA, and designated much of it as wilderness, which prohibits any development or motorized access.

However, 1.5 million acres of the northern coastal plain of the refuge was withheld from the wilderness designation because of its oil and gas potential, which federal and state geologists say is similar to that on state-owned lands further west where major discoveries have been made like the Prudhoe Bay field.

ANILCA also required that Congress approve any exploration and over the years national conservation groups and their allies in Congress blocked the authorizations.

That was until 2019, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski succeeded in getting approval for a federal lease sale in the refuge as a part of a major federal tax overhaul passed that year.

The sale was held in early 2021 but major oil and gas companies did not bid because of the environmental controversy and likely lawsuits, but the state agency along with two small independents bid and won leases.

The companies later dropped the acreage in light of opposition from the Biden administration, but Alaska, led by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, continues to press rights under the leases.

Brook Brisson, senior staff attorney with the environmental law firm Trustees for Alaska, said she was puzzled by AIDEA’s request for bids.

“A judge (recently) rejected all of AIDEA’s claims and arguments that it had to be allowed to do harmful seismic on the coastal plain now. Seeing this request from AIDEA asking for proposals for companies to do seismic is a bit of a head scratcher because nothing has changed: all oil and gas activities are paused until the legal problems with the Trump leasing program are addressed. It’s time for AIDEA to stop wasting money and give up these leases,” Brisson said in a statement.

Meanwhile, an Alaska Native village, Kaktovik, owns 91,000 acres of private lands adjacent to AIDEA’s leases and may join the seismic exploration program if AIDEA is allowed to proceed.

Although Kaktovik owns its lands privately the management of the surface lands must comply with federal rules on the wildlife refuge surrounding it which means that the Inupiats are bound by the same requirements for congressional approval and federal agency permitting that apply to AIDEA’s adjacent leases.

The new Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement for ANWR exploration is expected late this year.