Interior Department Proposes Opening Up 82 Percent of Alaskan Petroleum Reserve

The move will create more jobs and help reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil, an official said.

A part of the 800-mile Trans Alaska Pipeline System runs through boreal forest past Alaska Range mountains near Delta Junction, Alaska, on May 5, 2023. Mario Tama/Getty Images

The Department of the Interior (DOI) released a draft analysis that proposes reopening up to 82 percent of the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) to oil and gas leasing and development, the agency said in a June 17 statement.

NPR-A was set aside as an emergency oil supply for the U.S. Navy by President Warren Harding in 1923. In 1976, the reserve was transferred to the DOI’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM).