ANCHORAGE (AP) — An Alaska state corporation is the only remaining oil-and-gas leaseholder in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge after a second private company gave up its lease in the controversial area.
Other than the state putting down millions of dollars in hopes that drillers might someday want to look for oil in ANWR, only two private companies submitted winnings bids in the 2021 lease, and now both have given up on the prospects and returned their leases.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management said Knik Arm Services, a small real estate and property leasing firm, asked to have its 49,000-acre federal lease rescinded and lease payments refunded. The agency said it will honor the request made last week.
The lease sale was held in the waning days of the Trump administration. The other private bidder, oil company Regenerate Alaska, a subsidiary of Australia-based 88 Energy, gave up its lease earlier this year.
It’s another defeat for drilling advocates who have long wanted to explore in the northernmost slice of the refuge. The area has been the subject of significant controversy for decades. Though it could sit atop billions of barrels of oil, Indigenous groups, including Gwich’in communities, and environmental groups have long fought against drilling in the coastal plain, in particular because it is a calving ground for caribou.
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state corporation, acquired seven leases in the sale. It is suing federal officials over what it calls improper actions that are preventing activities in the leased area.
Mark Graber, who owns Knik Arm Services, said he invested about $2 million into his lease and for a first-year lease payment. He said he had wanted to hold onto his lease in hopes that the state corporation prevailed in its lawsuit and that oil development would produce royalties for his company. But he said the fight over the leases could take years.
A federal law passed in 2017, with support from Alaska’s congressional delegation, called for lease sales on ANWR’s coastal plain, but the Biden administration suspended the leases and is reviewing the leasing program. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland last year said the Interior Department would conduct a new environmental review of the leasing program.
Alan Weitzner, AIDEA’s executive director, said the decision by Knik Arm Services does not change the corporation’s plans. “There’s too much at risk not to (pursue exploration), when we talk about the potential for jobs and economic development for the state,” Weitzner said.
Separately, Hilcorp and Chevron previously canceled their interests in older leases on Native corporation-owned land within the refuge’s boundaries.
The Gwich’in Steering Committee, which represents 15 Gwich’in communities in Alaska and Canada, said the decision by companies to give up leases shows that drilling in the refuge is not worth the economic risk.
“These lands are sacred, and we — the Gwich’in people — will never give up fighting to protect the Arctic Refuge,” said Bernadette Demientieff, the group’s executive director.
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