Biden, BLM Plan to Close Lands for Alaskan Oil Drilling

April 27, 2022--Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on April 25 released a management plan for the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A), the country's largest area of public land for oil and gas drilling, that will eliminate almost half of the 23 million acres available for potential drilling. The move still leaves nearly 12 million acres available for oil and gas leasing, or 52% of the existing land, but reverses a Trump-era plan to allow oil drilling on more than 80% of the reserve, which sits on the western side of Alaska's North Slope. ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) (Houston, Texas) is a major presence in the reserve, with active projects that include the Willow project in its Bear Tooth development, west of Prudhoe Bay.