The Bureau of Land Management wants to cut the permitting time for certain oil and gas projects in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve to as little as 60 days, according to a Friday press release.

Under the proposed rule, separate case-by-case reviews for qualifying production sites would be replaced by a standardized process covering common, repeatable activities that BLM says have already been studied extensively. Rights-of-way and some drilling permit applications meeting predetermined criteria could receive decisions within 60 days.

The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) spans roughly 23 million acres on Alaska's North Slope — making it the largest single unit of public land in the United States — with about 3.5 million acres currently under lease. Considerably more leases are set to be developed after this year. The reserve sits west of the better-known Prudhoe Bay oil complex, and development there has grown as operators push into new areas of the North Slope.

BLM's March NPR-A auction drew bids on 187 tracts and generated more than $163 million — the highest revenue ever collected in a lease sale for the reserve. The sale also produced the largest number of tracts receiving bids and the second-largest acreage total sold in a single NPR-A auction. ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and a Repsol-Shell consortium were among the successful bidders. ConocoPhillips already operates the large Willow development in the NPR-A, which received federal approval in 2023 and is among the most significant projects on the North Slope.

Securing acreage and producing oil from it, however, run on very different timelines in Alaska. Operators still need drilling permits, rights-of-way, and approvals for roads, pipelines, pads, and other permanent infrastructure — reviews that have historically taken far longer than the proposed 60-day window. BLM says more than two decades of permitting work in the reserve have given it enough environmental data to standardize reviews for projects similar to infrastructure already approved there.

The proposal follows a petition from the Alaska Oil and Gas Association requesting a uniform approval process and a 60-day timeline for qualifying projects. BLM is preparing an environmental impact statement alongside the new rule.

The agency has already rescinded a 2024 rule that restricted development in the reserve and reopened nearly 82% of the NPR-A to oil and gas leasing. The 2024 rule had been adopted under the prior administration and had strengthened protections for areas including the Teshekpuk Lake special area. The administration has also expanded leasing elsewhere in Alaska, including this year's first-ever auction of drilling rights in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The NPR-A proposal now enters a 60-day public comment period ending November 9, after which BLM will finalize the rule and the accompanying environmental review. For companies holding acreage from the record March auction, the more immediate number is 60 days — the proposed clock for turning at least some permit applications into decisions.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com