US holds 689,000-acre Alaska Arctic lease auction

The Trump administration moved forward on Friday with a sale of oil and gas leases covering 689,000 acres of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, marking the first of four auctions mandated by a tax and spending law enacted last year. The sale, conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, tested industry interest in a remote region long coveted for its energy potential but mired in political and environmental controversy.

Officials offered 60 tracts in the refuge’s coastal plain for auction, with sealed bids submitted by June 3 and opened via livestream on Friday morning. The action fulfills a legislative requirement and aligns with the administration’s push to expand domestic energy development. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the coastal plain is estimated to contain between 4.25 billion and 11.8 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil.

The auction’s outcome was seen as a key indicator of the oil industry’s appetite for Arctic drilling, a high-risk endeavor requiring decades of work and billions in investment. Industry interest has been uncertain; a lease sale held in January 2025 received no bids, and a prior sale in 2021 attracted only a handful....