Despite the federal government shutdown, the Trump administration is proceeding with new oil leasing on Alaska’s North Slope.
The U.S. Bureau of Land management said Tuesday it will be accepting nominations for areas to auction in an upcoming oil and gas lease sale in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. The call for nominations is the first step in the leasing process; comments on suggested leasing areas will be taken for 30 days, the BLM said.
The information is in a Federal Register notice scheduled to be published on Wednesday.
The pending lease sale is in accordance with the sweeping budget bill, signed by President Donald Trump on July 5, that he and his supporters call “The One Big Beautiful Bill.” The bill requires the BLM to hold at least five lease sales, each offering at least 4 million acres, over the next 10 years.
“Congress directed a program of expeditious leasing and development in the NPR-A to support America’s energy independence, and that is more important today than ever,” Kevin Pendergast, Alaska state director for the BLM, said in a statement. “This lease sale gets us back on track toward further exploration and development in the reserve, as Congress envisioned.”
The upcoming lease sale is intended to be under new Trump-era rules that remove protections enacted by the Biden administration, the Obama administration and earlier administrations, dating back to former President Ronald Reagan’s term.
Under the Trump rules, more than 18.5 million of the reserve’s 23 million acres are designated as available for leasing. That includes the ecologically sensitive Teshekpuk Lake, the largest lake on the North Slope, which is important habitat for migratory birds and which is adjacent to the calving grounds for the Teshekpuk caribou herd.
Lease sales in the reserve were held about every two years from 1999 to 2010 and annually from 2011 through 2019, but with protections for certain areas, including Teshekpuk Lake.
The Obama administration had a policy of coordinating those federal auctions with the annual areawide North Slope, Beaufort Sea and Brooks Range Foothills sales held by the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas. Coordinated timing on those enhanced industry interest and convenience, agency officials said at the time.
No lease sales have been held since the 2019 auction held under the first Trump administration. After that, that administration shifted its focus to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Two lease sales were held in the refuge, in January 2021 and January 2025. The first of those sales drew few bids, none of them from major oil companies, and the 2025 sale drew no bids.
Environmentalists criticized the move toward a sale during a government shutdown.
“The Trump administration’s outrageous announcement shows a sad truth in our country today: The government is open for resource extraction corporations and closed for the people,” Andy Moderow, senior director of policy at Alaska Wilderness League, said in a statement. “At a time when our government is shut down and essential public workers aren’t getting paid, it’s outrageous that federal leaders are prioritizing oil and gas sales over getting the country back on its feet.”
Cooper Freeman, Alaska director at the Center for Biological Diversity, echoed that sentiment in a different statement.
“The Trump government clearly isn’t shut down for the oil industry, with millions upon millions of Alaska’s western Arctic recklessly open for exploitation and desecration,” he said.“We can’t let this administration destroy key habitat for cherished wildlife like caribou, polar bears and millions of migratory birds for nothing more than stuffing oil barons’ pockets.”
A Department of the Interior spokesperson said certain BLM employees remain on duty to handle energy issues, a subject that Trump has said needs emergency action.
“Activities necessary to address the President’s declaration of a national energy emergency are continuing during the lapse in appropriations. The Bureau of Land Management has staff working in both exempt and excepted status to carry out essential energy-related responsibilities, including review of nominations for the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska lease sale,” said Alice Sharpe, senior public affairs specialist with the department, in an email.
Unlike the Arctic refuge, which is on the eastern side of the North Slope, the National Petroleum Reserve on the western side of the North Slope has drawn industry interest. The reserve is underlain by an oil-rich formation called Nanushuk that has yielded significant discoveries on both federal and state land.
Some of those discoveries have resulted in producing oil fields, and more are expected. ConocoPhillips’ huge Willow project, which the company has said will produce up to 180,000 barrels a day from reserves totaling about 600 million barrels, is located in the reserve and is set to become the North Slope’s westernmost producing oil field.