Auction of oil drilling rights in Alaska wildlife refuge draws tepid response

The Trump administration's Friday auction of oil and gas leases in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge attracted only $3.7 million in winning bids for five tracts of land, U.S. Department of the Interior officials said.

The auction offered 58 tracts on 689,000 acres (278,828 hectares) in a remote wildlife refuge known for a pristine habitat for species including polar bear, caribou and migratory birds. There were nine bids on five tracts of land totaling about 70,000 acres, with Hex Energy LLC and the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) as the only bidders.

The highest individual winning was for $1.7 million on tract No. 112 by Hex Energy.

The auction was the latest test of industry appetite for drilling in northern Alaska, a high-risk endeavor involving decades of work and billions of dollars of investment.

Friday's sale was the first of four in ANWR mandated in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that President Donald Trump signed into law last year. It is aligned with Trump's promise to boost domestic energy development and is supported by Alaska state officials and some native groups who want to open up drilling in ANWR to create jobs and reverse the state's declining oil production.

"Done the right way, in consultation with the Indigenous stewards of these lands, development has been shown to be a force for good for our region," Nagruk Harcahrek, CEO of Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, said in an emailed statement.

Oil and gas companies to date have shown little interest in ANWR's 1.5-million-acre coastal area along the Beaufort Sea even though it is estimated to contain up to 11.8 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The Biden administration received no bids from energy companies in January of 2025 when it offered 400,000 acres of the refuge in a sale mandated by Congress. The region's first sale in 2021 had few takers.

U.S. oil production is already at record levels due to drilling in more accessible areas like Texas and New Mexico, and companies have limited spending on new projects to focus on returning cash to shareholders.

An oil and gas group said Alaska was an important region for the industry.

"Alaska's resources are key to America's energy security, and we expect to see continued investment throughout the state," a spokesperson for the American Petroleum Institute said in an email.

Unlike the National Petroleum Reserve, which is adjacent to ANWR on Alaska's North Slope, the 19-million-acre wildlife refuge has no roads, facilities or other infrastructure.

Oil companies spent $163 million to pick up new leases in the NPR-A at an auction earlier this year, and a liquefied natural gas plant is under development in the area.

A state agency, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, is currently the only oil and gas leaseholder in ANWR, with six tracts. There has been no development of them to date.

ANWR is the native homeland of the Inupiat and Gwich'in peoples, who are divided over oil and gas development.

"Some places are too important to sacrifice," Kristen Moreland, executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee, said on a call with reporters. "Tomorrow's lease sale is about much more than economics or development. It is about whether our voices, our culture, and our way of life matters."

(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Stephen Coates and Nia Williams)

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 2:50 PM.