Offshore lease plan excludes Arctic

Shell’s Noble Discoverer rig in Unalaska in 2012. (KUCB photo)
The Obama administration has removed the Arctic Ocean from any new oil and gas leasing for the next five years.
The Interior Department announced its new plan for offshore leasing Friday morning.
The plan does not include any new lease sales in the Beaufort or Chukchi Seas off Alaska — which had been included in an earlier draft.
It does include one lease sale in northern Cook Inlet.
In a written statement, Interior Secre