Alaska is seeking priority conveyance of nearly 20,000 acres of uplands at the western boundary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the state’s Department of Natural Resources reported on Oct. 17 in Anchorage. It previously requested the acreage, between the Staines and Canning rivers, under the Alaska Statehood Act and Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.
State ownership of these lands has implications for the future of oil and gas activity on the eastern North Slope, Parnell said. “Just a few miles away, we are seeing billions of dollars of investment at the Point Thomson field,” said Gov. Sean Parnell (R).
Land within the refuge is not available for state ownership, but the state has said for many years that the US Fish and Wildlife Service improperly mapped ANWR’s western boundary, Alaska’s DNR said. It contends that the state believes the federal agency’s map includes land that is not actually within ANWR, it indicated.
“My administration began a thorough review of the boundary dispute after the [DNR] received bids in 2011 for oil and gas tracts on tidal and submerged lands at the state-federal boundary,” Parnell said.
He said the latest work, which built on earlier discussions between the state and federal government, began in 2012 and included historical and legal research as well as a field inspection by DNR and the state’s Department of Law this past July.
The state filed its priority conveyance request with the US Bureau of Land Management. “Alaskans have suffered from many roadblocks to resource development on federal lands,” Natural Resources Commissioner Joe Balash said. “Our hope is that the BLM will move quickly to convey lands that we can offer for oil and gas leasing and development.”
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].
Nick Snow
NICK SNOW covered oil and gas in Washington for more than 30 years. He worked in several capacities for The Oil Daily and was founding editor of Petroleum Finance Week before joining OGJ as its Washington correspondent in September 2005 and becoming its full-time Washington editor in October 2007. He retired from OGJ in January 2020.
