
Oil majors opted out of the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM)’s June 5 lease sale offering tracts in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)’s coastal plain, resulting in a tepid showing with 5 leases sold, generating $3.7 million.
Despite keen interest and competitive bidding—by majors and independents—at another recent BLM sale in Alaska, only two companies participated in the most recent auction. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state corporation with existing ANWR leases, won 3 tracts, and Hex Energy LLC, which produces natural gas in Cook Inlet but not on the North Slope, won 2, BLM announced. The tracts cover about 72,000 acres, about 10% of the 690,000 acres offered during the sale.
Moves to open oil and gas exploration in ANWR’s 1.56-million-acre coastal plain, also known as the 1002 area, have faced legal challenges and political controversy for decades. BLM’s recent sales results reflect that uncertainty, with a January 2025 congressionally mandated sale—held in the waning days of the Biden administration—receiving no bids, and a January 2021 sale garnering no interests from majors and generating $14 million in bids.
While the US Geological Survey estimates that ANWR’s coastal plain could contain 4.25-11.8 billion bbl of recoverable oil, litigation over ANWR leasing remains active and fierce. A broad coalition of conservation groups and Indigenous organizations filed a lawsuit against the federal government in 2020, and updated it in January 2026, alleging the government violated environmental, endangered species, and other laws by leasing the lands. The Alaska state government has engaged in its own legal battles to advance drilling rights against restrictions in the Biden and Obama administrations.

















