Petersburg Pilot -

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The federal Bureau of Land Management said it will remove nearly 750 square miles (1,942 square kilometers) from its Jan. 6 oil and gas lease sale for a part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The agency said Friday it would begin taking bids the following Monday for the rest of the land.

The land available for purchase is in the refuge’s northernmost region. The land management agency had initially proposed to offer the vast majority of the plain to bidders, which would have encompassed about 2,500 square miles (6,475 square kilometers) of the nearly 30,000-squar...