Alaska’s Tug-of-War on Land Rights

Alaska’s petroleum industry is run by national and international oil companies (IOCs) coming to Alaska with their workers and expertise to develop and produce oil. However, a more pertinent issue surrounding the petroleum industry in Alaska is who owns and who controls the land of Alaska including its mineral rights. Alaska’s land encompasses about 360 million acres (146 million hectares) or about the size of Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom combined, but with a population of only 700,000 people. After subsequent treaties and laws, the land has become split between Native Alaskan land, U.S. Federal Government land, and Alaska State land where by much of the splitting only occurred after the discovery of the great Prudhoe Bay oil field on Alaska’s North Slope in late 1968. The story of how the land was split and how much of Alaska’s land has been made into nature preserves, which have been saved from mineral rights development, is quite a story. The different interests of Americans, Native Alaskans, and average Alaskan citizens have conflicted with each other every step of the way and have affected land rights and even some business practices including how Alaska’s native companies work.