Obama adds restrictions on Alaska refuge, offshore

President Barack Obama plans to administer the potentially oil-rich Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska with the highest level of federal land protection, setting the scene for another high-profile confrontation with Republicans in Congress.

And Obama intends to withdraw large swaths of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas off the Alaska coast from oil and gas leasing later this week, when the Interior Department releases its latest five-year offshore oil and leasing plan, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said today.

In what is quickly shaping up to be a major battle between the administration and Congress over the future of oil and gas drilling in the arctic, the US administration today rolled out a new, comprehensive conservation plan for the refuge that recommends Congress designate the 1.5mn-acre (6,070 km2) coastal plain, known as section 1002, and other core areas as wilderness areas.

Obama released a video on the refuge, in which he described it as an "an amazing wonder" that is "pristine, undisturbed." But he also said the refuge is "fragile," requiring further protections.

The oil and gas industry and its allies in Congress have long called for opening the refuge to oil and gas drilling. The US Geological Survey has estimated ANWR's 1002 area, along with adjacent tribal lands and state areas, could contain an estimated 10.4bn bl of oil.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service is recommending that 12.28mn acres of the 19.6mn-acre refuge be designated as wilderness and that four rivers – the Atigun, Hulahula, Kongakut, and Marsh Fork Canning rivers – be included in the US' National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. More than 7mn acres in the refuge area already are managed as wilderness areas.

The conservation plan and accompanying environmental impact statement will guide Interior's handling of the refuge for the next 15-20 years. Interior already has been managing the targeted portions of the refuge as "wilderness study" areas.

The Republican-controlled Congress is almost certain to ignore Obama's call to formally designate these portions of the refuge as wilderness areas. But lawmakers would have to pass a bill to stop Interior from administering these lands as wilderness. And opponents of Obama's wilderness designations are unlikely to muster the 60 votes they would need to get legislation through the 100-member Senate.

Murkowski said today interior secretary Sally Jewell notified her that the administration intends to release its 2017-2022 offshore oil and gas lease plan in coming days. And that plan will wall off portions of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. The administration has been conducting an environmental analysis for leasing areas in the Chukchi and Beaufort. Interior has not provided a timetable for a release of the five-year plan, except to say it will be coming out soon.

Shell, ConocoPhillips and Statoil already hold leases for acreage off the Alaskan coast. Shell in 2012 began preliminary work on one well in the Chukchi and another in the Beaufort. But Shell's drilling program there was so plagued with problems the company was unable to tap into hydrocarbon bearing zones in those wells. The withdrawal is not expected to affect Shell or the other producers' existing offshore leases or any near or mid-term drilling plans.

Shell is hoping to return to the arctic this summer. "We remain focused on the Chukchi leases we have and the potential for a future drilling program. For that to materialize, we need to see progress on a number of fronts — including the (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's) completion of the supplemental environmental impact statement for Lease Sale 193. As always, it means receiving all of the necessary permits. And, of course, we have to have total confidence that we can execute a program safely and responsibly."

Murkowski said the administration also is weighing additional actions in the near future that could hamper production in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, where ConocoPhillips has been struggling for years to overcome regulatory barriers and produce first oil from its CD-5 project, the first development in the petroleum reserve.

A ConocoPhillips spokesman could not be reached for immediate comment.

The administration's efforts to expand protections and to restrict oil and gas activity have angered Murkowski and other Alaska Republicans.

"These decisions simply cannot be allowed to stand," Murkowski said. Murkowski said she has tried to work with the administration "but those days are now officially over."

Environmental group the Natural Resources Defense Council president Rhea Suh hailed Obama's actions, calling the refuge "a national treasury worthy of the highest protection available."

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