BLM lines up December lease sales and eases review of Alaska winter exploration

The Bureau of Land Management has spent the past month setting up its next round of onshore oil and gas lease auctions while loosening environmental review requirements for winter exploration in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve.

Over the past four weeks the agency announced December sales in three Western states that together cover more than 450,000 acres. In Wyoming, 172 parcels covering about 249,573 acres go up for bid Dec. 9. In Colorado, 113 parcels totaling 126,440 acres will be offered Dec. 8. In Utah, 43 parcels covering 74,550 acres are scheduled for Dec. 17.

Each sale opened a 30-day protest period when it was announced. The Wyoming window closes Oct. 28, Colorado’s Nov. 9 and Utah’s Nov. 16.

$5.1 billion so far this year

The upcoming auctions follow a year of heavy receipts. On Oct. 8 the bureau reported that third-quarter oil and gas sales brought in $372.1 million for 344 parcels on 293,963 acres in Montana and the Dakotas, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, the Eastern States, Nevada and Utah. That pushed oil and gas lease revenue for 2026 to $5.1 billion, most of it from a single May sale in New Mexico and Texas that topped $4 billion for 74 parcels.

Geothermal sales added $25.8 million in the quarter, including an August Utah sale of 32 parcels that brought in about $24.7 million and set bureau records for the highest bid on a single parcel and the highest bid per acre.

“This quarter’s sales demonstrate our unwavering commitment to fostering American energy dominance,” BLM Director Steve Pearce said in the release. Bonus bids and rentals from the oil and gas leases are split between the federal government and the states where the parcels are located.

Faster permits in the Petroleum Reserve

In Alaska, the Interior Department created a new “categorical exclusion” under the National Environmental Policy Act for wintertime oil and gas exploration in the National Petroleum Reserve, according to a notice published in the Federal Register Oct. 9 and effective that day. Activities that fall under such an exclusion can be approved without a full environmental assessment or impact statement.

The exclusion covers seismic surveys, temporary ice roads and snow routes, ice pads and camps, water withdrawals, appraisal and delineation drilling, well testing, and plugging and abandonment, among other work. The department said it based the decision on BLM’s review of 47 prior environmental assessments. Agency staff must still check each project for extraordinary circumstances, such as effects on endangered species or cultural resources, and prepare a fuller review if a significant effect is possible.

“The BLM has decades of experience analyzing the effects of exploration in the Petroleum Reserve,” BLM Alaska State Director Kevin Pendergast said in the bureau’s announcement. The bureau said about 3.5 million acres in the reserve are now leased, and that a March 2026 lease sale there drew bids on 187 tracts worth $163.7 million in receipts.

The move drew opposite reactions, according to the Alaska Beacon. The Alaska Oil and Gas Association welcomed it, arguing that decades of operating experience show winter exploration can be done responsibly. Representatives of the Alaska Wilderness League and The Wilderness Society objected that it removes public review of Arctic drilling and puts the region’s lands and wildlife at risk.