U.S./Canada ///
Staff, World Oil
Well, it didn’t take any time at all for the Biden Administration to show its true colors in dealing with oil and gas matters in Alaska.
Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation strongly disputed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announcement that it failed with respect to its permit application to conduct seismic studies in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the company said in a statement.
In the days before taking office, President Biden promised to unify the country. Then, in his first order of business, promptly alienated Alaska and other states that rely on energy development to keep the lights on in their communities.
“You can write a lot of executive orders, but an executive order doesn’t get you past go,” Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said on his last full day leading the Interior Department. “They still have to run through the gauntlet of the law.”
Amid low crude prices, fears about a backlash from the public and the prospect of regulatory uncertainty, just two oil companies placed bids on leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain: Knik Arm Services LLC and Regenerate Alaska Inc.
The Bureau of Land Management was set to begin opening sealed bids for 10-year leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain Wednesday afternoon, less than a day after a federal judge rejected environmental groups’ pleas to halt the auction.
The decision is a victory for the administration, which has been racing to issue oil leases in the refuge’s coastal plain before the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
World Oil editors discuss The North Face doubling down on its principled stand against well-paying American jobs, Russia wants to see OPEC+ production rise in February, and U.S. land regulators shrink Alaskan oil lease acreage.
On Dec. 14th, the groups filed requests with an Anchorage judge for a preliminary injunction to prevent the Interior Department’s planned Jan. 6 auction of oil and gas leases across the refuge’s 1.56-million-acre coastal plain.
A formal “notice of sale” is set to be published in the Federal Register on Dec. 7. The move is in keeping with a congressional mandate to hold two auctions of oil and gas leases in the refuge’s coastal plain by Dec. 22, 2024.
Activists, Native Alaskans, and more recently large shareholders have worked to persuade lenders and insurers they were jeopardizing the climate, their investments, and their reputation by underwriting Arctic drilling.
A group of investment firms, conservationists and indigenous groups have called on some of the world’s biggest insurers to cease supporting oil and gas projects in the U.S. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, even as the Trump administration advances plans to auction drilling rights in the Alaska wilderness.
In Alaska, Michigan and Norway, partisans on the left and right are sparring in the courts to implement their vision for the future of energy. Operations from small shale plays to multi-billion-dollar offshore installations suddenly hang in the balance as the regulatory outlook becomes increasingly cloudy.
The Interior Department is set to issue a formal “call for nominations” as soon as Monday, kick-starting a final effort to get input on what tracts to auction inside the refuge’s 1.56-million-acre coastal plain.
Mike Slaton, Contributing Editor
In the Arctic Circle, oil and gas interests are often a study of polar opposites. To some it looks like riches; for others, potential ruin.
“Any company that bids on leases or expresses interest in destroying the Arctic Refuge for oil will face a major public backlash and long-lasting damage to their reputation,” warned the groups, including the Wilderness Society, Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club.
Environmentalists and Alaska natives are challenging the Trump administration’s decision to sell drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, arguing the government gave short shrift to the impact on polar bears and the region’s other wildlife.
“Today’s announcement brings us one step closer to unlocking Alaska’s energy potential, which will create good-paying jobs and provide a new revenue stream for the state,” API senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs Frank Macchiarola said.
The Trump administration on Monday authorized a sweeping plan to sell drilling rights and spur oil development in Alaska’s rugged Arctic refuge, setting up a possible auction by the end of 2020 and a political clash if the president loses the November election.
The company will bring back output in Alaska and other states next month, with Canadian production coming back in the third quarter. “Given ongoing variability and uncertainty in the outlook for production curtailments, the company will continue to suspend forward-looking guidance and sensitivities,” Conoco said in a statement Tuesday.