Forego

Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Alaska on Friday said it was willing to forego lease sales in the environmentally sensitive Teshekpuk Lake area of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA) if a federal judge would allow the remainder of the scheduled lease sale in the northeast corner of the reserve to proceed.

Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Alaska on Friday said it was willing to forego lease sales in the environmentally sensitive Teshekpuk Lake area of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA) if a federal judge would allow the remainder of the scheduled lease sale in the northeast corner of the reserve to proceed.

The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) will forego attempts to try to collect $1.3 billion in oil and natural gas royalties that have been lost so far due to the failure of the agency to include prices ceilings in 1998 and 1999 leases, but rather will concentrate its efforts on recovering revenues on future production from the flawed leases, the head of the agency said Thursday.