National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska-Unitization

This final rule adds a new subpart to the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) oil and gas regulations implementing new statutory authority allowing operators to form units in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A). Units allow for the sharing of costs and spreading of revenues among several leases, and allow for production to be attributed to committed leases in the unit. The final rule also: allows for waiver, suspension, or reduction of rental or royalty for NPR-A leases; allows for suspension of operations and production for NPR-A leases; amends existing regulatory language to set the primary lease term for an NPR-A lease at 10 years. Current regulations allow 10 years, or a shorter term if it is in the notice of sale; and adds a new subpart to the NPR-A regulations on subsurface storage agreements. Subsurface storage agreements allow operators to store gas in existing geologic structures on Federal lands. This rule also makes clear that existing suspension and royalty reduction regulations do not apply to the NPR-A.