The Department of the Interior will be holding an oil and gas lease sale covering at least 400,000 acres in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) on June 5. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act requires the Interior Department to hold four oil and gas lease sales in the refuge’s coastal plain through 2035. The one held in early 2025 in the waning days of the Biden administration had no bids. The Biden administration had shrunk the lease offering to the smallest allowed under federal law and doubled down on burdensome regulations, making the lease sale unattractive to potential bidders. According to the Oil & Gas Journal, the first sale for ANWR, held in January 2021, offered 1.1 million acres and yielded $14.4 million in high bids, which was less than 1% of the roughly $1 billion originally estimated. All bids for the June lease sale are due June 3, with opening and reading of the bids slated for June 5.
This sale would be the third federal oil and gas lease sale this year in Alaska, as the Trump administration is looking to expand development in the state. In March’s sale for the Cook Inlet basin, there were no bidders. The other Alaskan lease sale in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) where the Willow oil project is under development, drew hundreds of bids. The U.S. Department of the Interior reported that 11 companies submitted bids on 187 tracts covering 1.3 million acres out of an offering of 625 tracts covering about 5.5 million acres. The March 18 NPR-A sale resulted in $163.7 million in total receipts. The Willow oil project was authorized in 2023 and is currently under development by ConocoPhillips Alaska. The reserve is about the size of Indiana on Alaska’s North Slope.
Prior ANWR lease sales
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which passed during President Trump’s first term in office, required two lease sales for oil and gas development within the coastal plain of ANWR. The coastal plain of ANWR spans about 1.56 million acres of ANWR’s 19 million acres and contains significant oil reserves. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that there are between 4.3 and 11.8 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil in the coastal plain.
In the 2025 ANWR lease sale, the Biden administration made a number of restrictions. It reduced the allowed surface disturbance from 2,000 acres to just 995 acres and restricted seismic exploration to only the leased tracts — a shift from the previous plan, under which seismic exploration was permitted across the entire coastal plain, although it was never actually conducted. Seismic exploration uses sound waves to map underground structures and identify potential oil and gas reserves, and is widely used across Alaska’s North Slope.
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) was the largest bidder in that first ANWR lease sale, securing 370,000 acres. It pledged to participate in the second lease sale until the Biden administration made the aforementioned changes. While the 2021 lease sale yielded few bids, the Biden administration canceled them after taking office, citing “insufficient analysis” of the potential environmental impact of drilling. AIDEA sued the federal government, stating that the lease cancellations violated the terms set forth in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The agency argued that it was unlawful for an executive order to cancel leases, claiming only a court order, not an executive order, had the authority to nullify leases. In March 2025, a U.S. District Court judge ruled the Biden administration did not follow proper procedure to cancel the leases. Following the court ruling, the Department of the Interior moved to reinstate the leases.
Many Alaskans and oil industry leaders continue to support drilling in the refuge, pointing to the vital revenue that taxes on oil production bring to local governments and the need to ensure the continued operation of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. The North Slope’s Inupiat Eskimo population, in particular, supports drilling due to its significant economic benefits. These communities, which face harsh winters with extended periods of sub-zero temperatures and darkness, rely on the revenue to fund infrastructure and services, including the provision of fuel, as trees do not grow in the area.
Analysis
President Trump has vowed to boost oil drilling in ANWR, as part of a broader plan to expand natural gas and oil production on public lands across the country. More production is needed to feed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, which is running at about 25% of its original capacity. Environmental groups attack lease sales, but the revenues from this production have benefited Alaskans, especially on the North Slope, where 95% of the region’s tax base comes from land development. As Sarah Montalbano of Independent Women explains, “The coexistence of responsible development and environmental stewardship is how the North Slope—and by extension, Alaska—has operated for fifty years. The revenue funds schools, clinics, and sanitation systems in the communities closest to these projects. The next ANWR lease sale is a chance to extend that record.”
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