Potential Alaska Offshore Minerals Lease Sale

Overview

BOEM is evaluating whether to advance a competitive lease sale for minerals (other than oil, gas or sulfur) on the Alaska Outer Continental Shelf. Alaska is a strategic asset for both American industry and national readiness, and the goal is straightforward: strengthen U.S. energy security and supply chains, shorten delivery lines and keep jobs and investment here at home. If BOEM proceeds, it would mark the first minerals lease sale on the Alaska OCS. (More information: Critical Minerals on the Alaska OCS).

How the process works: Federal law sets out a step-by-step path before any lease sale occurs.

Once a lease is awarded, any proposed work on the water still requires additional plans and approvals. (More information: BOEM Marine Minerals Program)

What to expect here: This page will post plain-language updates at each step, including key dates and links to source documents.

Nodules covering the seafloor

Manganese nodules covering the seafloor.  USGS Photo

Lease Sale Process:

  1. Request for Information and Interest (RFI)

    Published in the Federal Register.

    30-day comment period - closes March 2026

  2. Identification of Areas

    Based on interest received during the RFI, BOEM announces areas to be considered for potential leasing

  3. Environmental Analysis

    BOEM’s scientists and other environmental specialists analyze the potential environmental impacts of a minerals lease sale encompassing the identified areas.

  4. Proposed Leasing Notice

    Published in the Federal Register.

  5. Leasing Notice

    Published in the Federal Register.

  6. Competitive Lease Sale

    BOEM evaluates bids and may award leases

Alaska RFI Map

2025 - 2026 Chronology

DateUpdate
Jan 29, 2026The Request for Information and Interest referenced below is published in the Federal Register. This publication initiates a 30-day public comment period ending at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, March 2. See Jan. 27 entry for details.
Jan 27, 2026

BOEM’s Alaska OCS Region announces a Request for Information and Interest (RFI). The purpose of this RFI is to evaluate industry interest and gather public input that could inform a potential lease sale for minerals on the Outer Continental Shelf off the coasts of Alaska.

The notice invites all parties — including companies, governments, tribes and other Alaska Native organizations, and the public — to submit information about potential lease areas, mineral of interest, uses and conflicts, and other factors that could inform BOEM’s planning. 

The RFI will be published in the Federal Register on Thursday, Jan. 29. The Federal Register publication will open a 30-day window for public comment, ending at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, March 2. During the commenting period, members of the public may submit comments at www.regulations.gov, the federal government’s official commenting website, using docket number BOEM-2025-0318.

Companies wishing to indicate commercial interest in specific OCS blocks should follow the instructions in the RFI.

Feb 3, 2025

The Secretary of the Interior publishes Secretarial Order 3417, “Addressing the National Energy Emergency.” Among other stipulations, the order states:

All Bureaus and Offices of the Department of the Interior … will identify the emergency authorities available to them, as well as all other legal authorities, to facilitate the identification, permitting, leasing, development, production, transportation, refining, distribution, exporting, and generation of domestic energy resources and critical minerals including, but not limited to, on Federal lands and the Outer Continental Shelf.