Trump Administration Scraps Drilling Rules for National Petroleum Reserve -- OPIS

The Trump administration on Monday rescinded Biden-era rules aimed at restricting oil and gas drilling in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve.

In an announcement about the move, the Department of Interior said the three policy documents approved by the Biden administration went against what Congress intended when establishing the reserve, ignored economic realities, failed to consider the wishes of local resident, and threatened to unnecessarily restrict access to vital domestic energy resources."

"Alaska's resource potential has been held hostage for years by anti-development ideologues," Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in the announcement. "We are committed to putting development back at the center of land management where it belongs."

The NPR-A covers about 23 million acres on Alaska's North Slope. Biden-era rules limited future leases and industrial development on more than 13.3 million acres in existing Special Areas within the NPR-A.

With the Biden rules rescinded, development in the region will now be guided by regulations in place prior to their adoption. When announcing the rollback plan last month, the Interior Department said the earlier rules "have long guided responsible development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska while incorporating protections for wildlife, subsistence and surface values."

Removing the rules limiting Alaskan oil and gas production is part of President Trump's efforts to boost U.S. petroleum output.

In 2024, Alaskan crude production averaged 421,000 b/d, the lowest annual level since 1976 and more than 79% lower than the annual average high of 2.017 million b/d hit in 1988, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.

This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

--Reporting by Steve Cronin, scronin@Opisnet.com; Editing by Michael Kelly, mkelly@opisnet.com