[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 179 (Monday, September 17, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Page 52907]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-18267]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[AK-020-1610-DP-088L]


Announcement That BLM-Alaska Has Discontinued Its Planning 
Efforts for the South Portion of the National Petroleum Reserve--Alaska 
Integrated Activity Plan and Environmental Impact Statement

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of intent to discontinue planning efforts for the South 
NPR-A.

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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Alaska State Office, is 
discontinuing preparation of the Integrated Activity Plan (IAP) for the 
South portion of the National Petroleum Reserve--Alaska (NPR-A) and its 
accompanying Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

DATES: Planning activities will officially cease with publication of 
this notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Bob Schneider (907-474-2216), Lon 
Kelly (907-474-2368) or Mike Kleven (907-474-2317) by phone or by mail 
at 1150 University Avenue, Fairbanks Alaska, 99708-3844.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The planning area for the South NPR-A 
Integrated Activity Plan/Environmental Impact Statement includes 
approximately 9.2 million acres within the southwestern portion of the 
National Petroleum Reserve--Alaska. The planning effort was initiated 
with a Notice of Intent to Plan published June 15, 2005. Although the 
formal scoping period ended in August 2005 and a scoping report was 
finalized in November of 2005, further development of the plan was 
suspended to allow the North Slope Borough (a cooperating agency) to 
develop a ``community-based'' management alternative. As part of its 
effort, the Borough conducted several public meetings and submitted a 
Community Based Planning Report to the BLM in January 2007. Evident 
from the Borough's report and the BLM's own scoping efforts is the high 
level of concern on the part of North Slope residents regarding the 
potential impacts of oil and gas activity on subsistence resources, 
especially the Western Arctic Caribou Herd, whose primary calving area 
is within the South NPR-A planning area. The Bureau's resource 
assessments indicate that the South NPR-A planning area contains 
limited oil reserves--approximately 2.1 percent of the undiscovered oil 
in the NPR-A. Although the area contains an estimated 27 percent of the 
NPR-A's undiscovered gas reserves, there is no transportation system to 
move the gas to market.
    The BLM places great emphasis on public participation during land 
use planning and has listened carefully to the concerns of the people 
of Alaska's North Slope. In consideration of these concerns and the 
practicality of energy development, the BLM is discontinuing the South 
NPR-A planning effort at this time.

Sharon K. Wilson,
Acting State Director.
[FR Doc. E7-18267 Filed 9-14-07; 8:45 am]
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