US opens Alaskan areas to oil drillers

ANCHORAGE, Alaska: United States President Donald Trump’s Administration announced yesterday it has made final its plan to open up vast areas of onceprotected Arctic Alaska territory to oil development.

The US Bureau of Land Management released its plan for the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, a 9 millionhectare swath of land on the western North Slope. The record allows lease sales to proceed under relaxed standards.

The decision is one of a number of prodrilling actions taken by the Trump Administration in its final days.

This week, the bureau is scheduled to auction drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on the eastern North Slope.

The plan allows oil development on about 80% of the reserve.

Under Obamaera rules, about half of the reserve was available for leasing and the other half was protected for environmental and indigenous reasons.