ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) filed a lawsuit Friday to block a Biden administration ban on drilling across nearly half the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, Bloomberg reported, claiming the measure violates a federal law that compels oil development there.

The lawsuit aims to thwart an Interior Department rule that explicitly bars oil leasing on 10.6M acres of the 23M acre reserve, while restricting future oil development in 13M acres designated as "special areas."

Congress said the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska should be used for "expeditious production of oil to meet the nation's energy needs," ConocoPhillips (COP) wrote in its lawsuit, and Congress "plainly did not authorize BLM to promulgate sweeping regulations that thwart and prevent the production of petroleum throughout the NPR-A."

But the rule contains "numerous new provisions that elevate resource preservation over energy production and effectively turn the petroleum reserve into a de facto wilderness area in which development is outright prohibited," the company said.

ConocoPhillips' (COP) Alaska unit owns 1.8M acres of state and federal leases in the state, including 1M net undeveloped acres as of year-end 2023, the company said in its filing.