National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska Production Site Development

======================================================================== Proposed Rules Federal Register ________________________________________________________________________ This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules. ========================================================================

Federal Register / Vol. 91, No. 172 / Tuesday, September 8, 2026 / Proposed Rules

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

43 CFR Part 3130

National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska Production Site Development

Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

Proposed rule.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is proposing to streamline its decision-making process for authorizing the construction and operation of qualifying oil and gas production sites and their associated rights-of-way (ROWs) in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (the Petroleum Reserve or NPR-A). This proposed rule would establish pre-defined criteria for defined and repeatable common activities with similar environmental effects that, when met by an applicant, would result in a streamlined permitting process for qualifying production sites.

Send your comments on this proposed rule to the BLM on or before November 9, 2026. The BLM is not obligated to consider any comments received after this date in making its decision on the final rule. Information Collection Requirements: This proposed rule includes a new information-collection requirement that must be approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). If you wish to comment on the proposed new information-collection requirement, please note that those comments should be sent directly to the OMB. The OMB is required to make a decision concerning the collection of information contained in this proposed rule between 30 and 60 days after publication of this document in the Federal Register. Therefore, a comment to the OMB on the proposed information-collection revisions is best assured of being given full consideration if the OMB receives it by October 8, 2026.

Submit your comments using one of these methods: Mail, personal, or messenger delivery: U.S. Department of the Interior, Director (630), Bureau of Land Management, 1849 C St. NW, Room 5646, Washington, DC 20240, Attention: 1004-AF57. Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. In the Search-box, enter "BLM-2026-0133" and click the "Search" button. Follow the instructions at this website.

For Comments on Information--Collection Activities

Information-Collection Requirements: Written comments and suggestions on the proposed new information-collection requirement should be submitted by the date specified earlier in DATES to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this specific information- collection by selecting "Currently under Review--Open for Public Comments" or by using the search function. If you submit comments on these information-collection burdens, you should provide the BLM with a copy at one of the addresses shown earlier in this section so that we can summarize all written comments and address them in the final rulemaking. Please indicate "Attention: Paperwork Reduction Act Comments (RIN 1004-AF57)." Comments not pertaining to the proposed rule's information-collection burdens should not be submitted to OMB. The BLM is not obligated to consider or include in the Administrative Record for the final rule any comments that are improperly directed to OMB.

Peter Cowan, NPR-A Rulemaking Project Manager, telephone: 505-954-2016 or email: [email protected]. For questions relating to regulatory process issues, contact Faith Bremner at: 202-513-0775. Individuals in the United States who are deaf, blind, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services for contacting Mr. Cowan. Individuals outside the United States should use the relay services offered within their country to make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States. For a summary of the rule, please click on the Docket Details tab in docket number BLM-2026-0133 on www.regulations.gov.

I. List of Acronyms II. Public Comment Procedures III. Background IV. Discussion of the Proposed Rule V. Procedural Matters

APD--Application for Permit to Drill BLM--Bureau of Land Management CFR--Code of Federal Regulations COA--Condition of Approval DOI--Department of the Interior EIS--Environmental Impact Statement E.O.--Executive Order FLPMA--Federal Land Policy and Management Act IAP--Integrated Activity Plan MDP--Master Development Plan MMPA--Marine Mammal Protection Act NAGPRA--Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act NEPA--National Environmental Policy Act NHPA--National Historic Preservation Act NPR-A--National Petroleum Reserve--Alaska NPRPA--Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976 NSO--No Surface Occupancy OIRA--Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs OMB--Office of Management and Budget PRA--Paperwork Reduction Act RFA--Regulatory Flexibility Act RIA--Regulatory Impact Analysis ROD--Record of Decision ROP--Required Operating Procedure ROW--Right-of-way UMRA--Unfunded Mandates Reform Act U.S.C.--United States Code

If you wish to comment on this proposed rule, you may submit your comments to the BLM by mail, personal or messenger delivery, or through https://www.regulations.gov (see the ADDRESSES section). Please make your comments on the proposed rule as specific as possible, confine them to issues pertinent to the proposed rule, explain the reason for any changes you recommend, and include any supporting documentation. Where possible, your comments should reference the specific section or paragraph of the proposal that you are addressing (for example, "43 CFR

3139.11 Pads and Road Design"). The BLM is not obligated to consider or include in the administrative record for the final rule any comments received after the close of the comment period (see DATES) or comments delivered to an address other than those listed previously (see ADDRESSES). Comments, including names and street addresses of respondents, will be available for public review at the address listed under "ADDRESSES: Mail, personal or messenger delivery" during regular hours (7:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Eastern Time), Monday through Friday, except holidays. Before including your address, telephone number, email address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, be advised that your entire comment--including your personal identifying information-- may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold from public review your personal identifying information, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

On May 12, 2026, the BLM Alaska State Office received a "Petition for Rulemaking to Create a Development Permit Program in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska" (Petition) from the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, which is a professional trade association that represents companies involved in exploring, producing, transporting, and refining oil and gas in Alaska. The Petition, submitted on behalf of AOGA's member companies, outlines the need for a uniform and efficient permit approval process that would expedite the authorization and construction of production sites and associated rights-of-way, while maintaining robust environmental protections and mitigation measures. Drawing on nearly 3 decades of environmental impact analyses and regulatory experience in the NPR-A, the Petition proposes regulatory modifications designed to streamline permitting for projects with well-understood environmental effects, thereby advancing both Congressional intent for expeditious development under the laws governing the NPR-A and national energy policy objectives. The public can review the Petition on the BLM's website, https://eplanning.blm.gov, under NEPA number "DOI-BLM- AK-0000-2026-0012-EIS." After considering the Petition, the BLM decided to undertake this rulemaking to streamline the decision-making process for certain defined and repeatable common activities with similar environmental effects in the Petroleum Reserve. The Department and the BLM have long recognized that existing processes for NPR-A development were often repetitive, duplicative, unpredictable, and unnecessarily burdensome and in need of streamlining. This rulemaking therefore advances improvements that the Department had already contemplated, before it received the petition, to reduce delays in decision making for oil and gas infrastructure in the Petroleum Reserve; to better implement the direction of the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976, as amended (NPRPA); and to expeditiously develop oil and gas resources within the NPR-A. In addition, this rulemaking reflects the current Integrated Activity Plan (IAP), which provides the overarching management framework for the NPR-A, including land allocations, applicable lease stipulations, required operating procedures, and broad-scale environmental analyses that guide future leasing and development decisions. The 2025 IAP implements the direction in section 50105 of Public Law 119-21 that the BLM expeditiously restore and resume oil and gas lease sales under the NPR-A leasing program by holding at least five lease sales by 2035 in the areas designated for leasing in the 2020 IAP ROD and under the same lease terms and stipulations set out in that decision. As a result, the 2025 IAP established the conditions and expectations, consistent with the 2020 IAP ROD, under which oil and gas activities may proceed across much of the Petroleum Reserve, ensuring consistency, predictability, and appropriate resource protections. Note, however, that while the IAP provides the management direction for how leasing and development occur in the NPR-A, it does not by itself authorize exploration or development activities. This proposed rule relies on that framework, but goes further, by offering a streamlined permitting process for production site applications, aligning detailed project-level approvals with the IAP's programmatic direction. The most recent example of the BLM's decision-making process to authorize oil and gas development in the Petroleum Reserve is the Willow Master Development Plan (MDP). After ConocoPhillips Alaska, Inc. requested that the BLM prepare the Willow MDP Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on May 10, 2018, the BLM initiated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review by publishing a Notice of Intent to prepare an EIS on August 7, 2018 (82 FR 38725). Following a Record of Decision (ROD) in October 2020, litigation ensued, and the court ultimately vacated the ROD and remanded the matter to the BLM in 2021. The BLM then prepared a Supplemental EIS to address the District Court's decision. After completing the Supplemental EIS, the BLM then issued a new ROD approving the plan--which authorized development--in March 2023. Agency review of proposed development under the Willow MDP proceeded over an almost 5-year period that included the BLM's initial NEPA review, a change in administration, litigation that resulted in a supplemental EIS, and additional analysis before issuance of the final ROD in March 2023. By comparison, the streamlined process proposed in this rule would establish a 60-day decision window for qualifying production site applications, reflecting the BLM's intent to provide a more predictable and timely approval framework for development activities with well-understood environmental effects. This approach would reduce the delays in project permitting--demonstrated by the Willow MDP--by setting clear eligibility criteria for streamlined review; requiring all compliance steps and data up front, establishing strict timelines for BLM review and approval; and relying on an EIS, which is being developed as part of this rulemaking, to avoid repetitive NEPA analyses. In support of this rulemaking, the BLM identified and reviewed the applicable oil and gas development environmental assessments and EISs completed within the NPR-A since 1998. The ePlanning website (https://eplanning.blm.gov/) contains a comprehensive list of environmental assessments and EISs completed within the NPR-A, which can be accessed by searching for the EIS supporting the rule under NEPA number "DOI- BLM-AK-0000-2026-0012-EIS." By comparison, the streamlined process proposed in this rule would establish a 60-day decision window for qualifying production site applications, reflecting the BLM's intent to provide a more predictable and timely approval framework for development activities with well-understood environmental effects. While the Willow project involves full field development of the most comprehensive type in the NPR-A to date, the review process and timeline are not atypical for other more modest development proposals with similar known environmental effects in the area. In particular, the BLM's experience approving the Greater Mooses Tooth 1 pad, supported by the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the

Alpine Satellite for the Proposed Development Project (DOI-BLM-AK-0000- 2013-0001-EIS), demonstrates that even smaller-scale projects may require extensive and time-consuming NEPA review, reinforcing the need to streamline decision-making for certain development activities. The proposed rule would reduce delays experienced in projects like Greater Mooses Tooth 1 by establishing clear eligibility criteria for streamlined review, requiring all compliance information up front, setting firm timelines for the BLM's review and approval, and relying on an EIS to avoid repetitive, project-specific NEPA analyses. The BLM published the Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for Production Site Development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska on May 19, 2026 (91 FR 29155), which initiated the BLM's EIS to evaluate the environmental effects of this rulemaking.

President Warren G. Harding originally designated the area of the Petroleum Reserve in 1923 as Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4, Executive Order No. 3797-A (Feb. 27, 1923). It was one of several naval petroleum reserves established in the aftermath of World War I intended to serve as an emergency oil supply for the U.S. Navy. Encompassing approximately 23 million acres of public land extending from the north slope of the Brooks Range to the Arctic Coast--an area nearly the size of the State of Indiana--the Petroleum Reserve's primary purpose was rooted in securing a domestic source of petroleum for national defense, rather than in resource preservation. Between 1944 and 1953, the Navy conducted exploratory programs in the Petroleum Reserve that discovered two small oil fields (Simpson and Umiat), one prospective oil field (Fish Creek), a gas field (South Barrow), and four prospective gas fields (Meade, Square Lake, Titaluk, and Wolf Creek). The Navy also pioneered numerous methods for oil exploration in the Arctic and collected a significant amount of scientific information regarding northern Alaska. Motivated by private industry's 1968 discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay and the increasing price of oil due to the embargo that started in 1973, Congress passed the NPRPA in 1976. The NPRPA transferred administrative jurisdiction over the Petroleum Reserve from the Secretary of the Navy to the Secretary of the Interior and redesignated the "Naval Petroleum Reserve Numbered 4, Alaska" as the "National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska." At the time the NPRPA was enacted, the NPR-A remained largely unexplored and almost completely undeveloped (H.R. Rep. No. 94-156, at 3). Between 1974 and 1977, the Navy drilled seven test wells in the northeast corner of the NPR-A. These early explorations were significant undertakings that involved public funds, with a single test well costing the Federal Government approximately $100 million. Congress recognized that accelerating exploration, that would eventually lead to production, of the NPR-A was vital to the national interest to assess the amount and location of the potential oil and gas available in the NPR-A, particularly considering the national need for energy independence. H.R. Rep. No. 94-81, at 8. Congress also acknowledged that the wildlife and other surface values in the NPR-A would have to be considered within the context that the NPR-A be managed for oil and gas exploration activities. Congress determined that the Secretary of the Interior is best qualified to make judgments regarding these other values. Id. Congress provided certain directives within the NPRPA, including for the Secretary of the Interior to commence petroleum exploration within the NPR-A as soon as the administration of the NPR-A was transferred to the Interior Department. Congress further set forth the purpose that the development of the NPR-A be regulated in a manner consistent with the total energy needs of the Nation. The NPRPA established a management priority for oil and gas exploration activities within the NPR-A and, as a result, is considered a dominant- use statute. Within that context, the NPRPA also authorized the Secretary to promulgate such rules and regulations necessary and appropriate for the protection of environmental, fish and wildlife, and historical or scenic values within the Petroleum Reserve. Public Law 94-258, codified at 42 U.S.C. 6503(b). This provision provides the Secretary with discretion to protect surface resources within the Petroleum Reserve but not in contravention of the overriding purpose of the NPRPA to provide for the energy needs of the Nation. The NPRPA as originally enacted also directed the Secretary to assure the maximum protection of significant subsistence, recreational, fish and wildlife, or historical or scenic value within special areas, as determined by the Secretary, but only insofar as that protection is consistent with the requirements of the NPRPA for the exploration of the Petroleum Reserve (42 U.S.C. 6504(a)). The BLM promulgated regulations soon after enactment of the NPRPA to govern management and protection of surface resources in the NPR-A that implement the direction in Act (43 CFR part 2360). In promulgating this rule, the BLM has also been mindful that, under Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 603 U.S. 369 (2024), a reviewing court will exercise independent judgment in determining whether this rule falls within the authority Congress conferred by the NPRPA. The rule is fully consistent with the statutory language and structure of the NPRPA. Section6506a(b) expressly delegates to the Secretary the discretion to determine what conditions, restrictions, and prohibitions are "necessary or appropriate" to mitigate reasonably foreseeable and significantly adverse effects on the surface resources within the Petroleum Reserve. Separately, section 6503(b) delegates to the Secretary the discretion to promulgate rules and regulations she deems "necessary and appropriate" to protect the Petroleum Reserve's environment, fish and wildlife, and historical or scenic values. Finally, section 6506a(o) expressly authorizes the Secretary to issue implementing regulations. Through this rule, the BLM is appropriately exercising the discretion in that delegated authority in a manner that gives effect to the NPRPA's dominant-use purpose without contravening the Secretary's additional statutory obligation to protect surface resources. Because the discretion exercised here is one Congress expressly conferred, this rule reflects the type of delegation that Loper Bright confirms, while ensuring that the BLM has acted within the bounds of that delegation.