Bids for leases in north-east quadrant of NPR in May

The U.S. Interior Department said it expects to take bids from companies this May to lease up to 4 mm acres of land in Alaska for oil and natural gas drilling.
The draft lease notice was published in the Federal Register and covers the north-east quadrant of the National Petroleum Reserve near Barrow, Alaska that borders the Arctic Ocean.
The final notice of sale will be published in the Federal Register at least 30 days prior to the date of bid opening, the Department said.

The Interior Department estimates that if crude oil prices are in the $ 18 to $ 30 range, the north-east quadrant could profitably produce anywhere from 500 mm barrels to 2.2 bn recoverable barrels of oil. The department has no estimate of the land's natural gas reserves.
However, given that the current market price of oil is about $ 12 a barrel, it may be years before work on the quadrant would be economically feasible.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt gave the go-ahead last August to lease land in the north-east part of the reserve. Environmentalists opposed the plan, arguing wildlife and fragile land would be threatened by oil and gas leasing.
About 580,000 acres of the reserve - which encompasses nearly all of the shallow lakes north and east of Teshekpuk Lake - will be off limits to leasing to protect caribou, geese, wetlands and hunting grounds used by native people.
The National Petroleum Reserve, set up in 1923 for the U.S. Navy, consists of 23 mm acres.
The area was transferred to the Interior Department in 1976, under the condition that no oil development in the reserve be allowed unless Congress approved.
In 1980, Congress opened part of the reserve to oil company leasing. Lease sales were made to six oil companies, but those contracts have since expired.