Many oil companies have been seeking access to ANWR for years, but the official decision to open it comes at a time when few in the sector are expected to take a risk on unexplored properties with not much data on the oil wells below the surface. . But Bernhardt said despite the lack of seismic data companies use to map oil reservoirs before drilling, he expected interest to be strong.
“I think a lot of people will bid without seismic data,” he told reporters.
President Donald Trump, who had previously boasted about opening up ANWR, stated in an interview early Monday that no final decision had been made on opening up the area.
“We may or may not do it,” he said. “Well, no, we’re watching it.”
Bernhardt declined to comment on Trump, saying, “I am not aware of what the president specifically said.”
Oil companies are leaving Alaska because of the high cost of drilling and shipping oil from such a remote area compared to the relatively fast and cheap oil wells they can drill in Texas, North Dakota and other states already with pipelines are provided. The British oil giant BP completed a sale of its extensive Alaska operations to the smaller Hilcorp last month, and ConocoPhillips remains one of the only major oil companies still drilling in Alaska.
Environmental groups also said that applying the resources from the area will exacerbate climate change in a region that is already seeing a loss of permafrost and, in some cases, villages along the coastline in danger of slipping into the sea.
“This plan will not only harm caribou, polar bears and other wildlife, it is foolish in the face of rapidly advancing climate change,” said director Rykala, Center for Western Priorities. “Oil companies will have to harden their infrastructure to withstand melting permafrost and rising seas, which will lead to an even greater impact. ”
Democrats, indigenous tribes in the area and environmental groups have long opposed Interior Services to open ANWR. They said that drilling in the area negatively affects caribou herds in the area which are an important food source for tribes, and pointed to the interview of their own environmental impact which says that drilling in the area would harm the icebergs .
A number of major global banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, have said they will not provide financing for drilling in ANWR. Environmental activists have suggested that the reputational risks for companies working in ANWR would be serious.
Those announcements from the banks have prompted the Trump administration to investigate whether they discriminated against the project, which was first reported by POLITICO.
