citing<\/a> Wood Mackenzie analysts, the companies are seeking to capitalize on Donald Trump\u2019s policies aimed at expanding oil drilling in the United States.<\/p>\nThe newspaper said ExxonMobil, Shell and Repsol were among the companies that submitted a record combined $163 million in bids for land leases in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.<\/p>\n
The US Geological Survey estimates the region may contain as much as 8.8 billion barrels of oil. ConocoPhillips and Australia\u2019s Santos have also applied to develop more than 1 million acres on Alaska\u2019s North Slope, an area that is difficult to access but considered highly prospective for reserves.<\/p>\n
The Financial Times said the easing of environmental restrictions and the expansion of licensing opportunities had encouraged ExxonMobil and Shell to resume exploration activities in Alaska after an absence of nearly a decade.<\/p>\n
According to Wood Mackenzie data, investment by oil companies in the state rose to $5 billion in 2025, the highest level in a decade, up from $4.1 billion the previous year.<\/p>\n
Francisco Gea, head of exploration and production at Repsol, said: \u201cAlaska is a fantastic opportunity. Reversing the decline in oil production in the state of Alaska will help increase oil supply to the Pacific region at a critical moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, the Financial Times described the return of Shell and ExxonMobil to Alaska as unexpected for the industry.<\/p>\n
Shell halted operations in the region in 2015 after a failed $7 billion campaign and years of pressure from environmental groups.<\/p>\n
Shell Chief Executive Wael Sawan said the projects currently under consideration involved \u201ca completely different part of Alaska.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sawan said the company was no longer pursuing the complex offshore projects that had previously caused difficulties, but rather \u201conshore production in a well-understood basin.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the Financial Times, major discoveries by independent geologist Bill Armstrong in Alaska, along with new projects by ConocoPhillips and the Santos\/Repsol partnership, have also fueled renewed interest from oil companies.<\/p>\n
Armstrong said the success rate for exploration activities on the North Slope had reached 94%. He added that Alaska was \u201cthe most promising investment in the world\u201d and could \u201ccatch up with and surpass Guyana\u201d in terms of reserves.<\/p>\n
Oil production in the South American country of Guyana, which began over the past decade, exceeded 600,000 barrels per day by early 2026. The country\u2019s reserves are estimated at more than 11 billion barrels.<\/p>\n
Most of the production comes from the deepwater Stabroek block, where ExxonMobil operates.<\/p>\n
The Financial Times said the energy crisis and instability in the Middle East had increased interest in Alaska as an alternative supply source.<\/p>\n
Santos Chief Executive Kevin Gallagher said the region was \u201cextremely strategically important\u201d for oil shipments to Asia.<\/p>\n
Wood Mackenzie estimates that oil production in Alaska will rise to around 750,000 barrels per day by 2030, up from 475,000 barrels per day in 2024. Environmental groups, however, warn that new oil investments threaten Alaska\u2019s ecosystem.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump first raised the prospect of allowing oil production in protected areas of Alaska during his first presidency in September 2019.<\/p>\n
Before Trump\u2019s proposal, the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge had been closed to oil and gas exploration. Former US President Joe Biden revoked the Trump-era authorization in 2023, citing the need to protect wildlife.<\/p>\n
After returning to office for a second term, Trump declared an energy emergency in the United States, signed a series of executive orders supporting oil and gas production, and said energy output should be doubled. Trump has summarized his energy policy with the slogan: \u201cDrill, baby, drill!\u201d<\/p>\n
Conflict in the Middle East and the resulting energy crisis have also pushed oil companies to develop new fields.<\/p>\n
The Wall Street Journal reported in April that Exxon Mobil, Chevron and other major energy companies were accelerating their search for new oil and gas fields in regions less exposed to war risks linked to Iran.<\/p>\n
Companies have recently intensified exploration activities in Africa, South America and the Eastern Mediterranean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Major oil companies including ExxonMobil, Shell and Repsol are returning to oil and gas exploration in Alaska, citing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[11608,11609,11610,11611,11612,194,4445,11613,11614,11615,11616,11617,11618,127,5000,3993,11619,11620,11621,11622],"class_list":{"0":"post-21889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-repsol","8":"tag-alaska","9":"tag-alaska-north-slope","10":"tag-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge","11":"tag-bill-armstrong","12":"tag-conocophillips","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-energy-crisis","15":"tag-exxonmobil","16":"tag-financial-times","17":"tag-gas-exploration","18":"tag-kevin-gallagher","19":"tag-national-petroleum-reserve-in-alaska","20":"tag-oil-exploration","21":"tag-repsol","22":"tag-santos","23":"tag-shell","24":"tag-us-geological-survey","25":"tag-wael-sawan","26":"tag-wall-street-journal","27":"tag-wood-mackenzie"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}