Interior Secretary Deb Haaland issued the order – which comes after a temporary moratorium on oil and gas lease activities imposed by President Joe Biden on his first day of office.
Mr Biden has been against drilling in the region and called for permanent protections during the presidential campaign.
The US leader’s executive order on 20 January also suggested a new environmental review was needed to address possible legal flaws in the Trump administration’s drilling programme under a 2017 law enacted by Congress.
Following a review, the US Department of the Interior said it “identified defects in the underlying record of decision supporting the leases, including the lack of analysis of a reasonable range of alternatives” required under the National Environmental Policy Act.
