While U.S. Senate pushes Alaska wildlife refuge drilling, industry looks elsewhere
(Reuters) - Even as the U.S. Senate moves to allow oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the real action is 150 miles (241 km) west, where industry proponents hope a coming sale of 10 million acres of land will revitalize the state’s sagging crude production.
The Trump administration, through the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, will auction off 10 million acres on Wednesday in the National Petroleum Reserve (NPR-A), a hotbed of oil exploration and development in the western part of Alaska’s North Slope.
The planned sale has encouraged the oil industry while angering environmental groups. It would be the largest amount of land offered in a single lease sale there. The last sale of 1.45 million acres in 2016 netted $18.8 million, according to the U.S. Interior Department.
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Alaska’s Congress members have pushed to allow drilling in ANWR, and a provision to do that was included in the Republican tax bill that recently passed the Senate.
Yet industry supporters say development in the NPR-A, already established for the oil and gas industry, could yield barrels much more quickly than drilling in more remote Alaska frontiers.
More: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-alaska-oil/while-u-s-senate-pushes-alaska-wildlife-refuge-drilling-industry-looks-elsewhere-idUSKBN1DZ2WP
