(The Center Square) – An auction Friday of oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, long at the center of political disputes over energy development, drew bids on five tracts covering about 71,000 acres out of 58 tracts spanning nearly 690,000 acres.
This auction was the first of four required lease sales under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by President Donald Trump in July 2025. The bill mandates at least four auctions in the wildlife refuge by 2035.
The previous lease sale in the refuge was held in January 2025, when no bids were submitted and no revenue was generated. Oil industry representatives and Alaska state officials argued at the time that overly restrictive lease terms and environmental conditions discouraged corporate participation.
In Friday auction, the winning bids by two Alaska-based companies totaled $3.7 million. The state-owned Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority secured three tracts, while Anchorage-based private developer Hex Energy LLC won two.
While Friday’s auction drew minimal interest, a separate lease sale in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve earlier this year attracted a record $163.7 million in high bids from energy companies that included ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.
The 1,563,500-acre Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may contain between 4.25 and 11.8 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Because no major outside corporations took part, environmental advocates and some tribal organizations immediately termed the auction an economic failure.