A September 2025 Congressional Research Service In Focus report summarizes the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A), a 23-million-acre federally owned area in northern Alaska. It was established in 1923 by executive order as Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4 — the largest of the early naval reserves created as the US Navy converted from coal- to oil-burning ships and sought assured wartime fuel supplies — and has been administered by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management since 1976, when the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act (P.L. 94-258) authorized commercial development. CRS notes the NPR-A has drawn congressional interest for decades owing to its biodiversity, its historical and cultural importance to some Alaska Native communities, and its potentially large oil and gas deposits. Recent debate has centered on whether to expand oil and gas development in the reserve or to enlarge the areas prioritized for conservation, recreation, and other values.
(Congressional Research Service, 2025)
Source: Congressional Research Service · original
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