NPR-A Legacy Wells Program
The Naval Petroleum Reserve Number 4, now called the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), is an area of more than 23 million acres in the northernmost part of Alaska, and was established by executive order on February 27, 1923. During early exploration programs, the U.S. Navy (1944-1953) and the U.S. Geological Survey (1975–1982) drilled 136 wells and core holes termed, "legacy wells" ranging from 100 to 20,335 feet. Some wells were cased and tested and remained test wells. Some were core tests with no casing or wellhead installed. Many were left unplugged or partially plugged.
The Bureau of Land Management is now responsible for both the surface and subsurface management of the petroleum reserve, including the legacy wells. The BLM has assessed the condition of the wells and embarked on a program to plug and abandon them. The assessment of the legacy wells can be found in the
Legacy Well Summary Report. The BLM has actively pursued plugging 41 wells that pose a potential risk to the environment. Thirteen of these 37 wells have been plugged by the BLM since 2002.
For more Legacy Well information, view the Legacy Well report.(>4.0 MB PDF file) (Please note: report may take several minutes to load.)
For more information, please contact our BLM Alaska Public Information Center at (907)-271-5960
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