Lease Sale Announcement in Western Arctic

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Feb 11, 2026
Contact: Anja Semanco | 724-967-2777 | anja@alaskawild.org 

Lease Sale in Western Arctic Proves No Corner of Alaska’s Arctic Is Off-Limits to Industrialization 

Washington, D.C. — Today, the Trump administration released final details for a sweeping federal oil and gas lease sale in the Western Arctic (National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska), opening millions of acres of globally significant wildlife habitat the size of New Jersey to industrial development. The Detailed Statement of Sale—and specifically how it offers up areas of the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area that have not been made available for leasing for decades—demonstrates that no place is too sacred to drill for the Trump administration. 

“The details of this lease sale show that companies like ConocoPhillips won’t stop with Willow and that this administration will always put profit over people,” said Kristen Miller, executive director of Alaska Wilderness League. “Just weeks after the complete collapse of an oil rig in the nearby village of Nuiqsut, this administration is throwing open the doors to some of the most sensitive, wildlife-rich places in the Arctic and gambling with landscapes that sustain communities, caribou herds, and millions of birds. The financial and environmental risks here far outweigh any speculative profits. Fortunately, smart companies and investors know a bad bet when they see one.” 

The Western Arctic sale offers tracts that surround the vast majority of Teshekpuk Lake, including areas in the far north of the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area that haven’t been offered for sale in decades. Careful consideration of science and community input by past administrations deemed these areas too sensitive to drill, making this sale an outlier from other lease sales that occurred in the past three decades.   

The agency will accept minimum bids as low as $5 per acre in western parcels, setting a small price for the potential industrialization of Alaska public lands. This reflects a long-standing pattern of decline in the region dating back to the large 1999 lease sale, when ConocoPhillips acquired the leases that now underpin the Willow project. Details of past sales can be found at this link. 

The lands targeted in this lease sale have long been recognized for their irreplaceable value to clean water, wildlife, and Alaska Native subsistence communities—including areas that past administrations of both parties deemed too sensitive to lease. The sale offers vast acreage within the former Colville River Special Area, further impacting some of the most ecologically important landscapes left in the Arctic. Additionally, tracts surrounding the community of Atqasuk are also being put up for sale, along with a few final parcels near the community of Nuiqsut, where drilling continues to get closer to the community each year. 

Today’s detailed notice of sale was posted the week after an agency error in public notice took place, with the Federal Register failing to publish the lease sale notice last Friday.  The result of this error is the delay of the sale by nine days, with results now due to go public on March 18. 

Additionally, the announcement comes just weeks after Doyon Rig 26 toppled over on the tundra near the Western Arctic, spilling diesel fuel and catching fire after unstable, warming conditions reportedly compromised the ice road beneath it. Cleanup has only just begun. As the Arctic warms three to four times faster than the rest of the planet, thawing permafrost, melting ice roads, and extreme weather are making industrial accidents more frequent and more dangerous, underscoring the growing risks of operating heavy infrastructure in this fragile environment. 

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Photo Credit: Richard Spener