US Sells 5 Oil and Gas Leases in Alaska’s Arctic Refuge for $3.7 Million

The Bureau of Land Management held an oil and gas lease sale Friday for the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, resulting in five leases and generating $3.74 million.

According to the agency, two companies submitted bids on five tracts covering 72,049 acres. The Bureau of Land Management had offered 58 tracts encompassing approximately 688,829 acres for bidding during the sale.

“This lease sale is another important step toward restoring American Energy Dominance and responsibly developing the vast resources Congress directed us to make available in the Coastal Plain,” Bureau of Land Management Director Steve Pearce said in a statement.

The lease sale marks the second auction in the Coastal Plain under President Donald Trump and the first since Congress passed the Working Families Tax Cuts Act. The Trump administration has emphasized increasing access to domestic energy resources, including those located within Alaska.

The Sierra Club described the sale as an “embarrassment,” noting that it generated just $3.7 million despite claims that expanded leasing would help fund major tax cuts.

The environmental organization pointed to the refuge’s role as habitat for wildlife, including the Porcupine Caribou Herd, and said the area is important to the culture and subsistence traditions of the Gwich’in people, who the Sierra Club said have long opposed oil and gas development there.

The organization said it plans to continue challenging efforts to expand drilling in the refuge and will work alongside local communities and environmental advocates who oppose development in the region.

“Let’s call that what it is, another scam to trick Americans into giving away our precious natural world,” said Athan Manuel, the Sierra Club’s director of Lands Protection. “It does nothing to change the reality that drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge remains a risky, controversial, and fundamentally flawed proposition.”

The Bureau of Land Management said the previous administration discouraged development in the area and canceled leases issued during the 2021 sale. Since January 2025, the agency has worked to reverse those actions.

The agency’s Alaska State Director Kevin Pendergast said the results demonstrated industry confidence in the area’s development potential.

“Today’s lease sale underscores the vision that both industry and government share about the viability of development in the Coastal Plain,” Pendergast said.

Under federal law, the state of Alaska will receive approximately half of the bid receipts, or nearly $2 million, from the lease sale.

Congress first recognized the resource potential of the Coastal Plain through the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 and later authorized oil and gas leasing in the area through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

The Bureau of Land Management manages approximately 245 million acres of public land nationwide, including large holdings in Alaska.