HJR 12 AM: Urging the Secretary of the Interior to conduct competitive oil and gas lease sales within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.
00HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 12 am 01 Urging the Secretary of the Interior to conduct competitive oil and gas lease sales 02 within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. 03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 04 WHEREAS, in 1923, President Warren G. Harding issued an Executive Order 05 establishing Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4 on the North Slope of Alaska to provide a 06 potential supply of oil for the United States Navy; and 07 WHEREAS the Reserve encompasses 23,500,000 acres, with boundaries extending due 08 south from Icy Cape to the drainage divide of the Brooks Range, then following the divide 09 eastward to 156 degrees west longitude, then north to the Colville River, and following the 10 Colville River downstream to its mouth; and 11 WHEREAS, between 1944 and 1976, the United States Navy drilled 45 shallow core- 12 test holes and 43 test wells and acquired nearly 11,100 line miles of seismic reflection data, 13 nearly 400 seismic reaction profiles, gravity data from more than 36,000 stations, and 12,000 14 flight line miles of seromagnetic data; and
01 WHEREAS the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976, P.L. 94-258, 90 02 Stat. 303, 42 U.S.C. 6501 et seq., redesignated Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4 as the National 03 Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and transferred responsibility for its administration to the 04 Secretary of the Interior; and 05 WHEREAS, between 1975 and 1982, the United States Geological Survey drilled 28 06 wells and acquired some 5,700 line miles of seismic survey and gravity data from more than 07 27,000 stations, which established several areas of oil and gas potential; and 08 WHEREAS discovery well Walakpa 1 showed a potentially economic gas reservoir, 09 which was confirmed by Walakpa 2; and 10 WHEREAS an amendment to the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act made by 11 the FY 1981 Department of the Interior Appropriations Act, P.L. 96-514, Title I, 94 Stat. 12 2964, directed the Secretary of the Interior to develop a fast-track oil and gas development 13 initiative intended to lease up to 2,000,000 acres of the Reserve for oil and gas exploration; 14 and 15 WHEREAS, under the 1981 authorization, between 1982 and 1984, the Department 16 of the Interior conducted four competitive lease sales, receiving $119,000,000 in bonus bids; 17 and 18 WHEREAS the recently announced development of the Alpine oil and gas field in the 19 Colville River Delta and potentially extending under the eastern extremities of the National 20 Petroleum Reserve in Alaska has generated renewed interest in competitive oil and gas leasing 21 in the Reserve; and 22 WHEREAS, since the last lease sale in the Reserve, significant progress has been 23 made in the areas of seismic sequence analysis, amplitude analysis, geological modeling, and 24 directional and long-reach drilling, and information has become available to potential bidders 25 that supports the belief that the Reserve could contain economic quantities of oil and gas; and 26 WHEREAS bonus bids received from competitive oil and gas lease sales in the 27 National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and royalties generated from oil and gas production in 28 it would be shared equally by the United States and the State of Alaska through prior 29 agreement; and 30 WHEREAS, during the last two decades of oil production on the North Slope of 31 Alaska, the industry has developed state-of-the-art technology that has demonstrated
01 environmentally safe production with a minimum of adverse impact; and 02 WHEREAS, the application of this advanced technology in the Reserve affords the 03 opportunity to further demonstrate that oil exploration and production are being done in an 04 environmentally sensitive manner; and 05 WHEREAS oil production from Alaska's North Slope is declining; and 06 WHEREAS more than half of the oil consumed each day in the United States is 07 imported from foreign countries; and 08 WHEREAS the discovery and development of commercial quantities of oil in the 09 National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska would enhance domestic energy security and reduce 10 dependence on foreign oil; 11 BE IT RESOLVED by the Alaska State Legislature that the Secretary of the Interior 12 is urged to take immediate action to conduct competitive oil and gas lease sales within the 13 National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska to allow for exploration and development of oil and gas 14 resources; and be it 15 FURTHER RESOLVED that this statement of support for reestablishing competitive 16 oil and gas leasing in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska does not in any way diminish 17 the legislature's continued strong support for opening the coastal plain of the Arctic National 18 Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, including the special study area identified in sec. 1002 of the Alaska 19 National Interest Lands Conservation Act, P.L. 96-487, 94 Stat. 2371, to oil and gas 20 exploration, development, and production. 21 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of 22 the Interior; to Deborah Williams, Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior for Alaska; 23 to Cynthia Quarterman, Director of the Minerals Management Service; to Rance Wall, acting 24 Alaska Regional Director of the Minerals Management Service; to Brooks Yeager, Deputy 25 Assistant Secretary for Policy, Department of the Interior; to Tom Allen, Alaska State 26 Director, Bureau of Land Management; and to the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable 27 Frank Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, 28 members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.