Drilling Oil & Gas Wells NAICS 213111

Jun 23, 2025 - Drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska

• The Trump administration has moved to open 23 million acres of Alaskan Wilderness to drilling by repealing protections imposed by the Biden administration, The New York Times reports. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the previous administration exceeded its authority when it banned oil and gas drilling in the area known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The petroleum reserve, established over a century ago as an energy warehouse for the US Navy, is estimated to contain more than 8 billion barrels of recoverable oil. The Bureau of Land Management has released a draft environmental assessment to propose reopening up to 82% of the reserve to oil and gas leasing and exploration and development. The proposal comes partly in response to Trump’s January executive order, “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential," the Interior statement said. The area is home to ConocoPhillips’ Willow oil field, approved under Biden.
• President Trump’s aggressive trade policy is undermining his efforts to get US energy producers to drill for more oil and gas by raising drilling costs and driving down the price of oil, NBC News reports. The administration raised the tariff on steel imports to the US 25% in March and then doubled them to 50% in June, increasing the cost of raw steel used to make the steel pipe used by energy companies. Moreover, US steel makers began hiking prices in February in anticipation of the tariffs. Economic uncertainty caused by Trump’s on-again-off-again tariffs, fears of a global trade war and a US recession have many drillers reluctant to start new projects. In April, US oil prices sank to their lowest level since 2021 on concerns that the tariffs will hurt economic growth.

• A US District Court has ruled the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) biological opinion for oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico fails to protect an endangered species of whale and sturgeon, Oil & Gas Journal reports. The ruling by the US District Court could imperil federal offshore oil and gas leasing drilling in the Gulf, several energy trade association defendants in the case – Sierra Club v. NMFS – said. The court said it would vacate the biological opinion on Dec. 20, 2024, if NMFS fails to complete a new one. Siding with environmental groups, the court challenged the biological opinion, saying it “underestimated the risk and harms of oil spills to protected species” and its jeopardy analysis for two listed species, the Rice’s whale and the Gulf sturgeon. The next federal Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sale is scheduled for 2025.
• Producer prices for drilling oil and gas wells services firms stayed flat in May compared to a year ago after rising 1.5% in the previous annual comparison, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Employment by oil and gas extraction firms rose 10.7% year over year in April, while the average industry wage fell 3.2% to $43.24 per hour over the same period, BLS data show. In May, the price for one barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil averaged $62.17, down from April and the lowest level in the past 24-month period amid anticipated weak demand. Low crude prices are a disincentive for drilling activity.