The Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) today said it has awarded two oil and gas drilling leases along the coast of the Beaufort Sea that include a disputed area on the western border of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
The state agency said the award is the outgrowth of a years-long effort to clarify ownership of a 3,000 acre area of submerged tidal land between the Canning and Staines rivers, which the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has long considered to be part of ANWR. FWS manages federal wildlife refuges, including ANWR.
The leases were awarded to private land investors J. Andrew Bachner and Keith Forsgren, the Alaska DNR said.
The Alaska DNR Oil and Gas division received bids for tracts in the area in 2011, and began conducting surveys of the area to assess available acreage. The Alaska DNR said that although FWS has long maintained that the western boundary of the 19.63-acre ANWR is the Staines River, "legal descriptions" maintain that the wildlife area's western boundary is actually the Canning River.
The Alaska DNR on 17 October sent the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) a request for priority conveyance of the disputed area west of the Canning river, which in total amounted to "nearly 20,000 acres of uplands." In support of the claim, the Alaska DNR provided a 1957 map of the proposed ANWR range, which was eventually established in 1960, as well as supporting descriptions of the western boundary.
The FWS, however, told Argus that it only heard about the state's claim when it sent its request for conveyance to BLM on 17 October. FWS maintains that ANWR's western boundary is codified by both the establishment of the refuge in 1960 and its expansion by Congress in 1980 and is not consistent with the state's assertion. BLM did not respond to requests for comment on the state's claim or what, if any, legal action the agency might take in response to the claim.
Alaska Governor Sean Parnell (R) said he is "pleased we are now able to … clarify the acreage that is available for oil and gas exploration in this highly prospective region," and added that "the next step is to determine how the state's assertion will affect existing leases" in the area.
Federal Wildlife and wilderness preserves in Alaska have been at cross purposes with the state's oil and gas industries for decades. Alaska earlier this year sued FWS over its alleged refusal to review the state's oil and gas drilling plan for the coastal plain abutting ANWR. Republicans in Congress have also repeatedly made efforts to open up protected areas, including ANWR, for oil and gas exploration.
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