By Sean Cockerham

McClatchy Washington Bureau

(TNS)

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is abandoning plans to open the Arctic Ocean to more oil drilling in the face of dwindling industry interest and environmental objections.

The Interior Department said Friday that it is canceling two scheduled Arctic Ocean lease sales. One was planned for next year to auction rights to drill for oil and gas in the Chukchi Sea off the northern coast of Alaska. The other was for 2017 in the neighboring Beaufort Sea.

At the same time, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell rejected the requests of Shell and Statoil for more time to consider drilling under their current leases. Those leases begin expiring in 2017.

Shell recently announced that its $7 billion Arctic Ocean oil exploration program was a failure. The company said it didn’t find enough oil to justify the cost and was abandoning the offshore Arctic drilling effort “for the foreseeable future.”

“In light of Shell’s announcement, the amount of acreage already under lease and current market conditions, it does not make sense to prepare for lease sales in the Arctic in the next year and a half,” Jewell said.

The Arctic Ocean is believed to hold huge oil and gas deposits. But low energy prices and high costs have dampened the enthusiasm of oil companies for exploring the Arctic Ocean and the lease sales were expected to draw little interest, especially after Shell’s costly failure.

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, nevertheless criticized the president for blocking “any hope for future energy development in the Arctic.” He blamed environmental regulations for Shell’s failure.

“Obama has once again played directly into Russia’s hands as he destroys our nation’s energy potential,” said Bishop, who is chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources.

Senate Energy Committee Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, called it a “stunning, shortsighted move.”

“Today’s decision is the latest in a destructive pattern of hostility toward energy production in our state that began the first day this administration took office,” Murkowski said.

There could still be Arctic Ocean drilling lease sales in 2020 and 2022, under Interior Department plans. Much will depend on the winner of next year’s presidential election. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton has expressed opposition to drilling in the Arctic Ocean, while Republican candidates have either supported the drilling or not taken positions.

Environmental groups praised the government’s decision to cancel the lease sales scheduled over the next two years.

“For years, people around the world have been demanding President Obama protect the Alaskan Arctic from catastrophic oil drilling, and today he’s taken a major step,” said Greenpeace spokesman Travis Nichols.

©2015 McClatchy Washington Bureau

Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau at www.mcclatchydc.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.