The Alaska Oil and Gas Association (AOGA) appreciates the opportunity to provide input on the
Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Request for Information (RFI) concerning potential
modifications to existing Special Areas, including identifying additional significant resource values,
adjusting boundaries, or considering new Special Areas within the National Petroleum Reserve in
Alaska (NPR-A).
ConocoPhillips Alaska, Inc. (“ConocoPhillips”) submits the following information in response to the BLM’s notice “seeking written feedback and information from the public to inform whether to initiate a process to consider changes to the Special Areas identified in the current IAP”
The Resource Development Council for Alaska (RDC) submits the following comments to the Bureau of Land
Management’s (BLM) above-referenced document. The BLM’s final rulemaking and subsequent Request
for Information (RFI) process regarding Special Areas within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPRA)
is rushed, lacks transparency and proper consultation with key stakeholders, and fails to comply with
current law. For the reasons that follow, RDC urges BLM to pause in its RFI process, address legal challenges,
and ensure it can receive proper public input before moving forward.
Armstrong Oil & Gas, Inc. (“Armstrong”) appreciates this opportunity to provide comments and
recommendations regarding the Bureau of Land Management’s (“BLM”) request for public
comment on “Special Areas Within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska” (“Request”).
The American Petroleum Institute (“API”) appreciates the opportunity to provide these
comments in response to the Bureau of Land Management’s (“BLM”) request for information
(“RFI”) regarding the need to: identify additional significant resource values for existing special
areas; modify the boundaries or management of existing special areas; or identify public lands
that may qualify for designation as new special areas in the National Petroleum Reserve in
Alaska (“Petroleum Reserve” or “NPR-A”).
We write to reiterate our strong opposition to the request for information (RFI), “Special Areas Within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska” published in the Federal Register by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on July 17, 2024. As discussed in prior letters to BLM, the administration’s decision to impose restrictions on a variety of activities across the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) is unprecedented and unlawful. As such, we urge BLM to abandon any effort to unilaterally expand Special Areas in the NPR-A.