Oenga v. United States

OPINION

FIRESTONE, Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

This action concerns a lease (the “Oenga lease”) entered into between the plaintiffs,1 owners of a forty-acre Native Allotment on Aaska’s North Slope, and BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. (“BPX”).2 The Oenga allotment is located on a peninsula known as Heald Point that juts out into the Beaufort Sea and is strategically located for directional drilling into state oil and gas leases owned by the defendant-intervenors. The Oenga lease was approved by the United States Department of the Interior (“DOI”) Bureau of Indian Affairs (“BIA”) under 25 U.S.C. § 415(a)…