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u.S.DepartmentoftheInterior BLMIAKIST-97/005+1120+985 Bureau of LandManagement June 1994 ReprintedOctober1996 AlaskaStateOffice 222West7th,#13 Anchorage, Alaska99513 The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska: A Minerals Reader Gary W. Brougham 100 miles !--T-'-.-,.........-,.................,...1 160 km SCALE TN 872 .A7 B86 1996 The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska: A Minerals Reader Compiled by Gary W. Brougham Edited by A.C. Banet and T. C. Mowatt Bureau ofLand Management June 1994 AlaskaStateOffice Anchorage, Alaska99513 National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska Minerals Reader Bureau of Land Management Alaska State Office Division of Mineral Resources 1- 1 a 100 miles f-I..,......,.-,'-..,.....,.-~,-II a 160 km SCALE Compiled and Written by G.W. Brougham Edited by A.C. Banet & T.C. Mowatt Forward This papershouldnot beviewed as an officialmineralspolicyposition paper. With the diminishing minerals budget inAlaskaand the uncertainty of reorganization, staffmg levels, and position management, itbecame necessaryto consolidateall the mineralspapers and "proposals" discussed internally bythe Division ofMineralsovertheyears concerningNPRA, into onedocUmentto ensure continuity of minerals managementintothe future. Ifanyofthe "proposals" are seriously consideredfor implementation, they shouldbereviewed by the Washington Officeand theArctic District Office for commentand input. - Sincethis paperwas startedovera yearago, some ofthe information containedhereinmaybe outofdate. G.W. Brougham June 2, 1994 Table of Contents Forward pg. 1 ListofFigures : pg. 3 ListofAttachments pg. 4 Introduction pg. 5 Executive Summary pg. 7 Oil and Gas pg. 8 Coal pg. 13 OtherKnown orSuspected Minerals pg. 14 Strategicand Critical Minerals : pg. 16 Conclusion pg. 18 BlM References pg. 20 OtherReferences pg. 21 Aboutthe BlM MineralsProgram pg. 22 2 List of Figures -Figure 1"Northern Alaska MineralAreas" pg. 6 Figure2 "NPRAOil and GasActivities" pg. 9 Figure 3"NPRACoaland 'Hard Rock' Minerals" pg. 17 List of Tables Table 1"NPRA Lease HistorySummary by Company" pg. 11 Table2 "Hypothetical Coal Resources in the NanushukGroupin NPRA" pg. 15 Table 3"NPRAResource EstimatesSummary" pg. 19 3 List ofAttachments J.OilandGas NPRA's MineralPotential-AVeryBriefPerspective, 17p,preparedfor InteriorSpecialAssistant Wiggins Summary: Oiland GasResource AssessmentUrukokCaribou/GrizzlySpecialManal:ementAreaand UrukokCaribouDeletedArea, Foland, 1991,4p Summary: OUand GasResourceAssessmentTeshekpukLakeSpecialManal:ementArea, Foland, 1991,4p ImpactofrecentARCO Alaska. Inc.discoveries in theColvj\\eDeltaArea onNPRA, Bascle& Foland,1993,5p ReportontheTexacoNo. lA Colvj\\eDelta,Teseneer,2p SoldTracts. SmithBayStateofAlaska oiland l:assale, 1p Briefinl:paper,UnderSecretaryGjelde,Brougham , 1P 2.Coal Prom;ssReport 1,Payton, 1988, 1P Prom;ssR.e.port2,Payton, 1989,2p CallabanCoalNotes,Callahan, Ip 3. "HardRock" DrenchwaterCreekAreaMineralsEyaluation,Conrath,4p SummaryCommentsonMineral Resourcepotential.NationalpetroleumReserveinAlaska,Mowatt, 1987,5p 4. StategicandCritical Minerals Sttatel:ic& CriticalMineralResourcesoftheSouthernPartoftheNational petroleumReserve in AIm, EllersieckandTailleur,USGSOFR86-158,1986, IIp potential inNPRAforElementsNeededforSuperconductivityResearch,Authorunknown(AK-985) 5. Leasing NationalPetroleum Reserve-AlaskaCompetitiveLeasinl:Terms,Borkoski, 1990, 18p(including4 attachments) StepstoLeaseSale,Authorunknown LetterofInterestto Industry,ArcticDistrlcOffice, 1989,2p FairMarketValueDeterminations.NPRA,Brougham, 1993, 3p BidAcceptanceCriteriaforNPRA LeaseSales,Lawton, 1982,4p 4 "'A'flONAl PE'fROlEUJ'J\ RESERVE-).\lASKA "AINERJ.\lS READER Introduction Fromitsdesignationas NavalPetroleumReserve#4in 1923tothepresent,the NationalPetroleumReserve inAlaska(NPRA)hasbeenanareaofhighmineral interestaswellasmisconceptions. Withthediminishingleasesaleinterestinthefirst halfofthe I980sto itsproposeddesignationasanationalwildliferefuge intheearly 1990s,theBLM-AlaskaDivisionofMineralshaswrittenseveralissuepapersin responsetomanydifferentinquiriesregardingtheenergyandmineralresource potentialofthis23millionacrereserve. Thispapersummarizestheminerals informationcontainedinthosepapersanddiscusseshowtoagainfosterinterestin energyandmineralresourceexplorationwithinthereserve.Contrarytopopular beliefandtheresultsofthe 1984NPRAleasesale, industryinterestwithinNPRAis notdead,butmerelyuncertainandcouldprobablybeclarifiedbyspecificactionsby theFederalGovernment. - Bycompili.llgthismineralsinformationintooneconcisedocument, itishopedthat thispaperwillguideBLMmanagementinthefutureplanningforlandmanagement withinNPRA.ItwillalsoserveasasourceofinformationthatwillinformCongress andthePublicabouttheoverallmineralpotentialofthereserveandtheneedtokeep NPRAinamultipleuse landstatus. Foreasyreference,allBLMauthorsandpapers areindicatedinboldtype. AlltheBLMunpublishedreferencesareattached. AllBLMOpenFileReportscan l I beobtainedfrom BLM,OfficeofExternalAffairs. 5 NORTHERN AL-ASKA OIL, GAS, MII',Nt'..'K'A'L (DEVELOPED AND UNDEVELOPED) Beau fort Sea Sou.th East Q~BarrOW Barrow Walakp _~ Simpson Meade Q NPRA Squ.are Lake / ""' Umiat Wolf Creekl£:!> CAMA ...m.. .f.r.o.n.t. ... Story Creek m Kivliktort Mtn. Red Dog Mine o N 100 miles I 'I I m Minerai Oepasit/Occurrence • o 160 km (Lead/Zinc/Silve,) ~ Oilfield o Gasjield Bureau of Land Management Branch of Mineral Assessment NPRA: Notional Petroleum Reserx.e. Alaska Anchorage. Alasko ANWR: Arctic Notional Wildlife Refuge (From Bonet. 1990) CAMA: Central Arctic Management Areo 1002: ANWR Oil and Gas Study Areo Figure 1 Executive Summary Oil and Gas DiscoveriesintheColvilleDelta,BeaufortSea,Chukchi SeaandCookInlet,renewingexplorationinterestin TheUmiatfield, withestimatedreservesof Alaska; approximately70to 100millionbarrels,wouldbe consideredagiantfield bylower48standards,butis NewtheoriesonhydrocarbonplayswithinNPRA. uneconomicdueto itsisolation. Contrarytopopular Despitethesemoreoptimisticconditionsfor leasing~ belief,mostofthewellsdrilled intheNavylUSGS severalimpedimentsremain: programwerenottotally"dry"holes. Manyofthe wellsdrilledfound atleastshowsofoilorgas. Many Highminimumbidrequirements($25acre),setwhenoil ofthesewellsweredrilledforgeologicalassessment priceswererising; purposesratherthanforresource delineationperse. Highroyaltyrates(16213%),setwhenoilpriceswererising; Themostrecent(1980)USGSassessmentofNPRA LackofclarificationonUnitization,whichwouldallow gaveestimatedranges ofrecoverableresourcesof: combiningandjointdevelopmentofleases. Oil: 300millionbarrelsto5.4billionbarrels, mean=2.1 billionbarrels; Gas: 1.8trillioncu.ft.to Provisionsrequiringimmediatedevelopmentorleases. 20.4trillioncu. ft., mean=8.5 trillioncu.ft. ThefirsttwoitemscanbesetbytheStateDirector. In 1982,thefirstoffourNPRAleasesaleswereheld. Thelastwouldneedclarificationbythesolicitorand Thesesalesgeneratedatotalof$84.7milliondollars ifnecessary,Congressionalaction. inbonusbids.Thelackofindustryinterestinthe 1984NPRAoilandgasleasesalemademanybelieve OtherKnown orSuspected Minerals thatthiswastheendofthe oilandgasleasing programinNPRA.However,thisbelieffailsto Coal:NPRAmaycontainupto40%ofthenation's considerwhyinterestwaned: remainingcoalreserves;perhapsuptofourtrillion Duetotheisolationfactor,alargeeconomicfieldsize tons. wasneededtocoverthecostofdevelopment; Zinc,Lead,Silver:SeveralareasofsouthernNPRA Morefavorableleasetermsinotherareas; (DrenchwaterandStoryCreeks,andKivliktort PassageofANILCA,whichforthefirsttimeofferedthe Mountain)haveknownmineralizationfeaturingthese possiblitythattheCoastalPlainareaoftheArctic metals.TheDrenchwaterCreekarea,basedon NationalWildlifeRefuge,longthoughttobethebest preliminarysamples,containedsome concentrations onshoreprovinceforamajordiscovery,mightbeopened higherthanthoseattheworldclassRedDogdeposit. foroilandgasexplorationandleasing; Basedonthispreliminarydata,onecannotassume Uncertaintyovernativeselectionsandlandownership thataworldclassdepositexistswithinNPRA, butthe witbintbereserve; possibilitycertainlyexists.TheBLM3031 manual wouldclassifytheseareasashaving"high"potential Development restrictionsi.e.lackofunitizationandno provisionsallowingtemporarysuspensionof fortheseelements. development; Fluctuatinganduncertainoilprices. StrategicandCriticalMinerals: Regionaltrendsof rockunitsassociatedwithconcentrationsofsuch Severalconditionshavechangedwhichwouldagain elementsassilver,cadmium,nickel,vanadium, fosterindustryinterestinthearea: copper,cobalt,andfluorinetrendintosouthern OilandGasdevelopment basexpandedto within10 NPRA.However,thisonlyinfers,butdoesnot milesoftheeasternboundaryoftbereserve,allowingfor mucbsmallerfieldsinNPRAtobeeconomic; confirm,theirexistencewithinthereserve. Activeexplorationandleasesonstatelandsadjacentto thereserve; LackofleasingopportunitiesinANWR; 7