Federal Judge Reinstates Nuiqsut Right-of-Way, Blocking Parts of NPR-A Lease Sale

U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason reinstated the Nuiqsut Trilateral right-of-way agreement Monday and granted an injunction keeping it in effect, halting parts of a National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska lease sale hours before bids were set to be unsealed.

Gleason entered the order March 16-17, stating her intention to rule before bid envelopes were opened Wednesday, March 18. She said the Nuiqsut plaintiffs presented a more compelling case for a temporary injunction, framing the dispute as one grounded in property rights rather than what she called "more esoteric" environmental and subsistence protections.

At the center of the case is a conservation-oriented right-of-way agreement negotiated between the Biden administration and Nuiqsut Trilateral Inc., an organization formed by Nuiqsut's city and tribal governments and its village for-profit Native corporation. Made final in 2024, the agreement protects about 1 million acres in the Teshekpuk Lake area by barring leasing and other development not approved by Nuiqsut Trilateral. The Trump administration subsequently canceled the right-of-way, opening the acreage to inclusion in the March NPR-A lease sale.

Nuiqsut is the North Slope Inupiat village closest to existing NPR-A development, and its counsel argued before Gleason that Interior's cancellation of the right-of-way created immediate and compounding legal risk.

"From the moment Interior canceled the right of way, it advertised its intent to grant competing property rights on top of the subject acreage. That is an invitation to administrative and judicial chaos down the road," attorney Annatoyn told Gleason during the day's second hearing. He urged the court to issue a targeted remedy: "This court should foreclose that chaos by issuing a narrow injunction and stay for just the area of the right of way. We are not seeking relief across the reserve. We are not seeking relief sale-wide."

Opposing counsel pushed back on the property rights framing, arguing the stakes were narrower than plaintiffs suggested. "It sounds concerning when they say that their property rights could be impacted, but again, the whole property right that they're really talking about is the ability to just leave it the way it is right now. And that's not going to change whether leases are issued or not," he said.

Annatoyn countered that Nuiqsut residents are already absorbing the consequences of expanded development in the region. "They wake up every day. They see and smell and hear the trucks going to Willow," he said, referencing the ConocoPhillips Willow project operating near the village.

Both this lawsuit and a related case were originally filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia before being transferred last month to federal court in Alaska. The full text and precise scope of Gleason's March 16-17 order, including its duration and exact geographic boundaries, had not been publicly released as of publication.