National Petroleum Reserve

National Petroleum Reserve, area, c.23 million acres (9.32 million hectares), Alaska North Slope, situated W of Prudhoe Bay and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The reserve, which is the largest remaining parcel of unprotected public land in the United States, overlies a petroleum deposit estimated at 6-13 billion barrels. Designated the Naval Petroleum Reserve Number 4 in 1923 and run by the U.S. Navy, it passed to the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in 1976, when its present name was adopted. From the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s the BLM sold oil leases for the NW and NE areas of the reserve. A plan for additional oil and gas drilling in the SW reserve was formulated in 1998 and later expanded (2004) to include opening most of a 9.2-million-acre (3.7-million-hectare) section of the area to drilling. Several environmental groups have objected to the plans, citing dangers to wetlands and wildlife and threats to the livelihood of indigenous people.

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National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska

The National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) is an area of land in the Alaska North Slope owned by the United States Federal Government. It lies to the west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is also federally owned land on the North Slope. At a size of 23.5 million acres (95,000 km²), it has been described as "the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the United States" (the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is 19 million acres (77,000 km²)) and includes a point from the nearest village or driveable road. Inupiat Eskimos live in several villages around its perimeter, the largest of which is Barrow, the seat of North Slope Borough.

History

The NPR-A was created by President Warren G. Harding in 1923 as "Naval Petroleum Reserve Number 4" during a time when the United States was converting its navy to run on oil rather than coal. In 1976 the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act renamed the reserve the "National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska" and transferred it from the Navy to the Department of the Interior. The 1980 Interior Department Appropriations Act directed the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) within the Department of Interior to conduct oil and gas leasing. Nevertheless, the area was left essentially as a wilderness until the late 1990s.

BLM divided the reserve into three planning areas: the Northeast with of public land, the Northwest with of public land, and the South with of public land. In 1998, after BLM had gone through a planning process for the Northeast area, the Secretary of Interior signed a Record of Decision (ROD), which opened 87 percent of this area to oil and gas leasing. BLM has since leased almost in the Northeast. A ROD for the Northwest area was signed in 2004. In this area have been leased. BLM began the planning process for the South in 2005, but discontinued it in the summer of 2007 because residents were concerned that extraction of oil and gas would harm resources needed for subistence.

In 2008 the plan for the Northeast area is in the process of being changed. The ROD for the Northeast reserved 800,000 acres (3200 km²) of the most ecologically sensitive areas, mostly around Teshekpuk, as a wildlife reserve. In January 2005, the George W. Bush administration decided to eliminate the reservations for the most sensitive areas. This decision was challenged by lawsuits. On September 7 2006, the US District Court in Anchorage blocked the sale of leases on 600,000 acres (2400 km²) of wetland around the Teshekpuk Lake area. In response to the court, BLM released a Supplemental Integrated Activity Plan/Environmental Impact Statement. The agency is expected to issue a final supplemental statement in the spring of 2008 and may hold a lease sale for the Teshekpuk area in the fall of 2008.

The conservation movement as a whole has put less effort into preserving the NPR-A than it has into protecting the smaller Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to its east. A citizens' proposal to conserve the entire NPR-A as a National Pleistocene Refuge, with no future oil and gas leasing, has been put forward. Other conservation initiatives have concentrated on specific areas within the NPR-A that are particularly rich in wildlife such as the Teshekpuk area and the wetlands along the Ikpikpuk River in the Northwest. As of early 2008, these campaigns have not achieved any permanent successes, despite the fact that a committee of the National Research Council in 2003 published a report that supports environmental claims that oil and gas extraction in the reserve causes extensive environmental damage.

Ecological importance

The NPR-A is an ecologically important area. It contains Teshekpuk Lake, an important nesting ground for many species of migratory bird, including shorebirds and waterfowl. The NPR-A also supports more than half-a million caribou of the Western Arctic and Teshekpuk Caribou Herds. The Western Arctic Herd calves in the Utukok, Kokolik and Colville uplands, while the Teshekpuk Herd calves in the areas surrounding Teshekpuk Lake. The highest concentration of grizzly bears in Alaska's Arctic, as well as wolverines, and wolves prey on the abundant caribou. NPR-A contains the headwaters and much of the Colville River, Alaska's largest river north of the Arctic Circle. The region's geology is unique in Alaska and most of the area was never glaciated.