By SUZANNE DOWNING
April 16, 2016 – The Bureau of Land Management will hold a new oil and gas lease sale in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on June 5. This marks the first such sale under federal legislation passed last year: The One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Sealed bids for tracts across the 1.56-million-acre Coastal Plain 1002 Area must be submitted by 4 pm Alaska time on June 3. The bids will be opened and read publicly on June 5, with the process livestreamed. A formal notice of the sale is expected to be published in the Federal Register.
BLM describes the lease offering as the first conducted under the 2025 tax and budget reconciliation package signed by President Donald Trump in July 2025. It directs expanded oil and gas development opportunities in Alaska and requires multiple future lease sales in the region, all of which will benefit Alaska’s state revenue picture, which depends on oil revenues.
The Bureau of Land Management must conduct at least four lease sales in the Coastal Plain by 2035, with each offering no fewer than 400,000 acres. The June 2026 sale is the first to meet that mandate.
Interior Deputy Secretary Kate MacGregor said the sale reflects longstanding legal backing for leasing in the Coastal Plain.
“After three Acts of Congress and several successful lawsuits making it abundantly clear that oil and gas leasing in this area of Alaska is lawful, it is a great honor to once again announce another Coastal Plain lease sale,” MacGregor said in the agency’s release. She added that the administration is taking “durable steps to unleash these important resources” as part of a broader push for American energy dominance.
The 2025 legislation not only reinstated leasing requirements but also established a framework for revenue sharing with the State of Alaska.
