Big Oil is eyeing a return to America’s last frontier: the Alaskan Arctic.
ExxonMobil, Shell and Repsol, as well as other major companies, bid a record $163 million in March for leases in the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska, the Financial Times reported Monday. The region is estimated to contain nearly 9 million barrels of oil, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. (RELATED: Trump Admin Walks Back Biden Rule ‘Smothering’ Alaskan Oil)
“Alaska is a fantastic opportunity,” Francisco Gea, the executive managing director of exploration and production at Repsol, told the outlet. “With the imminent start-up of the Pikka project on the North Slope, the reversal in the decline of oil production in the great state of Alaska is going to help put more oil in the Pacific area at an important moment.”
ConocoPhillips and Australia’s Santos also bid for leases in Alaska’s North Slope, FT reported, an area that is difficult to operate in but is oil-rich.
DELTA JUNCTION, ALASKA – MAY 05: A part of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System runs past Alaska Range mountains on May 5, 2023 near Delta Junction, Alaska. The 800-mile-long pipeline carries oil from the North Slope in Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez. In March, the Biden administration approved the controversial Willow project which will extract 600 million barrels of oil from the National Petroleum Reserve on Alaska’s North Slope, close to the Arctic Ocean. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The return of Exxon and Shell will mark the end of a nearly decade-long hiatus in the region, made possible by the Trump administration easing environmental regulations and expanding lease sales, the FT noted.
“It is a very, very, very different part of Alaska that we have gone to,” Shell chief executive Wael Sawan told the outlet. “This is an onshore exploration opportunity in a very well-established basin that has been producing for some time … So this is not offshore Alaska where we have had the challenges in the past.”
Since the start of Trump’s second term, the Trump administration has taken several actions to reverse President Joe Biden’s restrictions and kickstart Alaskan drilling, including an executive order in January 2025 that directed a flurry of deregulation for oil and gas development. The Biden administration had previously designated around 13 million acres on the North Slope as “special areas.” The policy severely restricted oil and gas leasing and was part of a broader crackdown on resource extraction from the state. (RELATED: Biden Admin Locks In Major Restrictions On Alaskan Oil, Mining)
Indian vessel ‘Nanda Devi’ carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) arrives at Vadinar Port in the Jamnagar district of Gujarat state on March 17, 2026 after Iran allowed it to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a key energy corridor that remains disrupted by the Middle East war. Indian-flagged tankers ‘Shivalik’ and ‘Nanda Devi’, carrying around 92,700 metric tonnes of LPG, had reached ports in Gujarat state, marking a rare exception in commercial passage through the chokepoint. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
“Once you know what you’re looking for, it’s like finding balls on a dog. This is the hottest play in the world right now,” Bill Armstrong, an independent U.S. oil prospector, told FT.
Armstrong credited the Trump administration for reopening the door to drilling and exploration in Alaska, and said that Big Oil companies have now slowly come around to the state’s potential.
Amid the Iran War and closure of the Strait of Hormuz, oil and gas prices have surged. The high prices may linger for a long time if the Strait does not reopen fully soon.