National Environmental Policy Act Implementing Procedures: Wintertime Oil and Gas Exploration in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska Categorical Exclusion

Issuing agencies

Abstract

This notice announces a revision to the Department of the Interior (Department)'s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) procedures adding a new categorical exclusion (CE) for National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) wintertime oil and gas exploration activities to the DOI Handbook of NEPA Implementing Procedures, Appendix 2: Bureau Categorical Exclusions.

Full Text

<html>
<head>
<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 195 (Friday, October 9, 2026)</title>
</head>
<body><pre>
[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 195 (Friday, October 9, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64673-64675]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-20763]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Office of the Secretary

[A2407-014-004-065516, #O2509-014-004-125222.0; LLMT: PO#4820002691]


National Environmental Policy Act Implementing Procedures: 
Wintertime Oil and Gas Exploration in the National Petroleum Reserve in 
Alaska Categorical Exclusion

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: This notice announces a revision to the Department of the 
Interior (Department)'s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) 
procedures adding a new categorical exclusion (CE) for National 
Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) wintertime oil and gas exploration 
activities to the DOI Handbook of NEPA Implementing Procedures, 
Appendix 2: Bureau Categorical Exclusions.

[[Page 64674]]


DATES: The CE is effective October 9, 2026.

ADDRESSES: The web address for the Department's Handbook of NEPA 
Implementing Procedures where the new CE is being added is: <a href="https://www.doi.gov/document-library/handbook/516-dm-1-handbook-national-environmental-policy-act-implementing">https://www.doi.gov/document-library/handbook/516-dm-1-handbook-national-environmental-policy-act-implementing</a>. The ``Substantiation of Proposed 
National Environmental Policy Act Categorical Exclusion for NPR-A 
Wintertime Oil and Gas Exploration Activities'' (Substantiation Report) 
for the CE is available at the BLM National NEPA Register: <a href="http://eplanning.blm.gov">http://eplanning.blm.gov</a> (NEPA number: DOI-BLM-AK-0000-2026-0021-OTHER_NEPA).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Wayne Svejnoha, Acting Deputy State 
Director, Resources, at (907) 271-4407, or <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#1364606576797d7c7b53717f7e3d747c65"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="67101411020d09080f27050b0a49000811">[email&#160;protected]</span></a>. 
Individuals in the United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of 
hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or 
TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services. Individuals 
outside the United States should use the relay services offered within 
their country to make international calls to the point-of-contact in 
the United States.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    The NPR-A consists of approximately 23 million acres on the North 
Slope of Alaska, administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). 
Congress established the primary statutory framework for the NPR-A 
through the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976, Public Law 
94-258, 42 U.S.C. 6501 et seq. (NPRPA), which transferred 
administrative jurisdiction over the Petroleum Reserve from the 
Secretary of the Navy to the Secretary of the Interior and redesignated 
it as the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. In 1980, Congress 
amended the NPRPA through the Department of the Interior Appropriations 
Act for Fiscal Year 1981 to direct the Secretary to conduct an 
expeditious program of competitive leasing of oil and gas in the NPR-A, 
while providing for such conditions, restrictions, and prohibitions as 
the Secretary deems appropriate to mitigate reasonably foreseeable and 
significantly adverse effects on the surface resources of the Petroleum 
Reserve. That legislation also exempted management of the NPR-A from 
the Federal Land Policy and Management Act's land use planning and 
wilderness review requirements, reflecting Congress's intent to 
dedicate management of the area to the primary purpose of oil and gas 
leasing and development, with access as a necessary component of that 
purpose. The NPRPA is thus a dominant-use statute, and BLM is required 
to manage the NPR-A primarily for oil and gas leasing, exploration, 
development, and production, while protecting environmental, fish and 
wildlife, and historical or scenic values within the NPR-A to the 
extent consistent with that overriding purpose.
    This notice notifies the public of the Department's establishment 
of the Wintertime Oil and Gas Exploration (WOGE) CE for use by the BLM 
for the approval of seismic surveys, Applications for Permit to Drill 
(APDs), and grants of Rights of Way (ROWs) in the NPR-A. Each of these 
types of actions is a narrowly specified type of action, whose 
environmental consequences are well understood and, as such, is 
particularly suited for inclusion in a CE. Across Federal oil and gas 
provinces in the United States, the NPR-A is unique in terms of 
statutory framework, stakeholders and inhabitants, geography, geology, 
remoteness, climate, and types of feasible development. This has 
generally contributed to a relatively expansive project-by-project 
approach to NEPA compliance, with numerous environmental assessments 
(EAs) having been completed for individual permitting actions within 
the NPR-A, each supporting a finding of no significant impact (FONSI) 
or finding of no new significant impact (FONNSI) for that individual 
action. This approach to permitting is inefficient--especially for 
well-understood individual permitting actions in the NPR-A. Improving 
the efficiency of environmental review is especially important in the 
NPR-A, where seasonal restrictions and severe weather can constrain 
when oil and gas companies can pursue construction and operations as 
authorized by the BLM.
    This CE advances U.S. energy policy and U.S. policy for resource 
development in Alaska by providing a tool for NEPA compliance that 
reflects the BLM's experience with these individual permitting actions. 
As set forth in E.O. 14154, Unleashing American Energy (Jan. 20, 2025), 
the Department and other agencies must ``undertake all available 
efforts to eliminate delays within their respective permitting 
processes, including through, but not limited to, the use of general 
permitting and permit by rule.'' As explained in E.O. 14153, Unleashing 
Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential (Jan. 20, 2025), it is the 
policy of the United States to ``efficiently and effectively maximize 
the development and production of the natural resources located on both 
Federal and State lands within Alaska'' and ``expedite the permitting 
and leasing of energy and natural resources projects in Alaska.'' While 
this CE is neither a general permit nor a permit by rule, it is a 
procedure for NEPA compliance that recognizes the limited environmental 
consequences of each of these types of permitting actions. The defined 
criteria for individual proposed permitting actions that may qualify 
for use of this CE is intended to limit the application of this CE to 
proposed actions that share common, well-studied characteristics.
    NEPA, 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq., requires Federal agencies to consider 
the environmental effects of their proposed actions in their decision-
making processes and inform and engage the public in that process. To 
comply with NEPA, agencies determine the appropriate level of review of 
any major Federal action--an environmental impact statement (EIS), EA, 
or a categorical exclusion (CE). See generally, 42 U.S.C. 4336 (b); 43 
CFR part 46; DOI NEPA Handbook section 1.2 (2026). Where it is 
reasonably foreseeable that significant environmental effects are 
likely, the agency must prepare an EIS and document its decision. See 
generally, 42 U.S.C. 4336 (b)(1); DOI NEPA Handbook section 
1.2(a)(5)(ii). Where appropriate, an agency may prepare an EA, and if 
it reaches a finding of no significant impact (FONSI), it need not 
prepare an EIS. See generally, 42 U.S.C. 4336(b)(2); DOI NEPA Handbook 
section 1.6; section 1.2(a)(4).
    Consistent with the Department's NEPA procedures, the Department 
may establish CEs--categories of actions that the agency has determined 
normally do not significantly affect the quality of the human 
environment. See 42 U.S.C. 4336(a)(2); 43 CFR 46.205. If the BLM 
determines that a CE covers a proposed action, it then evaluates the 
proposed action for extraordinary circumstances, which are factors or 
circumstances that indicate a normally categorically excluded action 
may have a significant effect. 43 CFR 46.205, 46.215. If the BLM cannot 
categorically exclude the proposed action following review for 
extraordinary circumstances, it will prepare an EA or EIS, as 
appropriate, before issuing any decision to authorize the action. 43 
CFR 46.205(c); 42 U.S.C. 4336(b). For the Department's establishment of 
this CE, the BLM developed a written record containing information 
sufficient to substantiate its determination that the category of 
actions normally does not significantly

[[Page 64675]]

affect the quality of the human environment.
    In developing the WOGE CE, the Department consulted with the 
Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) consistent with section 
102(2)(B) of NEPA, 42 U.S.C. 4332(2)(B).

II. Categorical Exclusions Justification

    The Department and the BLM find that the categories of actions 
described in the CE being added to DOI's NEPA implementing procedures 
normally do not significantly affect the quality of the human 
environment. This finding is based on the BLM's long history of 
authorizing, regulating, and monitoring winter oil and gas exploration 
activities in the NPR-A, which demonstrates that winter operations--
conducted on ice infrastructure, under Required Operating Procedures 
(ROPs), and within required environmental safeguards--do not produce 
significant or lasting environmental impacts. Ongoing improvements in 
technology, operational practices, and community engagement further 
reinforce the limited nature of these impacts.
    To demonstrate the finding that actions under the proposed CE would 
normally not significantly affect the quality of the human environment, 
the BLM reviewed all WOGE projects that have been approved and 
implemented over the last 28 years for which the BLM prepared 47 EAs 
and reached FONSIs and findings of no new significant impact (FONNSIs) 
that have been verified through post-implementation review and 
summarized them in the CE substantiation report included in this 
notice's supporting documentation. These 47 EAs that supported FONSIs 
and FONNSIs analyzed actions that are similar to and would fall within 
this CE. That is, because of its extensive experience with these types 
of actions, the BLM can confirm that the environmental impacts of these 
actions do not normally rise to the level of significance that would 
require preparation of an EIS and need not prepare additional EAs for 
each new action of these types.
    Notwithstanding the BLM's findings regarding the normal 
environmental impacts of these types of individual permitting actions, 
DOI recognizes that certain proposed actions, when reviewed on a case-
by-case basis, may implicate one or more extraordinary circumstances, 
and for those proposed actions where a normally excluded action may 
have a significant effect, bureaus will prepare an EA or EIS. Thus, 
prior to applying any CE, bureaus will review the proposed action to 
ensure it is covered by the CE and evaluate the proposed action for the 
presence of any extraordinary circumstances.
    DOI requires that any action for which the new CE is applied must 
be documented. BLM documents CE use with a checklist to demonstrate: 
(a) the applicability of the CE, and (b) that no extraordinary 
circumstances are present such that a normally excluded action may have 
a significant effect. In such cases where a normally excluded action 
may have a significant effect, BLM will conduct additional NEPA 
analysis and prepare an EA or EIS, as appropriate, before authorizing 
the action.

III. Text Added to the U.S. Department of the Interior Handbook of NEPA 
Implementing Procedures, Appendix 2: Bureau Categorical Exclusions

    The DOI Handbook of NEPA Implementing Procedures, Appendix 2: 
Bureau Categorical Exclusions includes the following language:
* * * * *

Bureau of Land Management

11.9 Actions Eligible for Categorical Exclusion (CE)

* * * * *

B. Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Energy

* * * * *
    (9) Approval of seismic surveys, applications for permit to 
drill, and grants of rights of way for wintertime oil and gas 
exploration activities within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska 
(NPR-A).
    (a) Covered activities:
    (i) Vibroseis seismic methods;
    (ii) Construction of temporary ice road and snow routes for 
access;
    (iii) Construction of ice pads, use of camps and associated 
support equipment;
    (iv) Water withdrawals and associated access;
    (v) Appraisal or delineation activities (drilling of wells and 
sidetracks from existing wells), well stimulation equipment, well 
testing (e.g., flow tests), well suspension, and plugging, and/or 
abandonment; and
    (vi) Helicopter-assisted summer cleanup activities associated 
with the prior winter drilling season.
* * * * *
    Authorities: NEPA, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.)

Troy Finnegan,
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Exercising the Delegated Authority of the 
Assistant Secretary--Policy, Management and Budget.
[FR Doc. 2026-20763 Filed 10-8-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4331-10-P


</pre><script data-cfasync="false" src="/cdn-cgi/scripts/5c5dd728/cloudflare-static/email-decode.min.js"></script></body>
</html>