ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A federal judge Wednesday stopped companies from developing oil and gas wells on billions of dollars in leases off Alaska’s northwest coast, saying the federal government failed to follow environmental law before it sold the drilling rights.
The lease sale in February 2008 brought in nearly $2.7 billion for the federal government on 2.76 million acres in the Arctic waters of the Chukchi Sea, including $2.1 billion in high bids submitted by Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc.
U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline said the Minerals Management Service failed to analyze the environmental effect of natural-gas development despite industry interest and specific lease incentives for such development.
The agency analyzed only the development of the first field of 1 billion barrels of oil despite acknowledging that the amount was the minimum level of development that could occur on the leases.
The agency also failed to determine whether information that it acknowledged was missing before the sale was relevant or essential under environmental law, or whether the cost of obtaining that information was exorbitant, the judge said.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 07/22/2010