No companies bid for the chance to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It was the second auction in four years that failed to draw strong interest.

The U.S. Interior Department says that no bids were submitted for this week’s oil and gas lease sale in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

According to the Department of the Interior's website, the sale is required by the 2017 Tax Act. The deadline to submit bids was Monday, January 6, 2025.

The state of Alaska has been the biggest fan of oil and gas drilling in the refuge. It says this lease sale is designed to discourage development.

U.S. applications for unemployment benefits fell to their lowest level in nearly a year last week, pointing to a still healthy labor market with historically low layoffs.

Oil companies declined to bid in a US government auction to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as industry interest wanes in a region that’s rich with crude but difficult to develop.

President-elect Donald Trump signed the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which mandated two sales on the refuge’s coastal plain. Trump often bragged in speeches about opening the 19-million-acre refuge to drilling after 40 years of unsuccessful attempts by other Republican presidents and Alaska lawmakers.

(Reuters) - The U.S. state of Alaska has sued the Biden administration for what it calls violations of a Congressional directive to allow oil and gas development in a portion of the federal Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

The lack of interest raises questions about the future of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, after decades of debate.

The Biden administration’s final oil and gas lease sale in Alaska failed to receive any bids this week, as the state sued the administration on the grounds that the auction restricted oil and gas development in the region.