The release of a revised plan for oil and gas leasing in US federal waters is expected soon, a top lawmaker said Monday.

"We're expecting that in the very near future," Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski said at the CERAWeek by IHS Markit conference in Houston. Murkowski also chairs the US Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

"Our reality is that we have considerable opportunity in our offshore, we need just the chance to go out and look," she added.

US regulators last year proposed opening up more than 90% of coastal waters in the outer continental shelf to oil and gas drilling, including areas previously off limits such as California and Florida. Though Florida was later exempted from the plan, the proposal has still seen strong opposition from community and green groups, and the states of California and Washington threatened to block permits for transporting oil from new offshore rigs through the region.

Murkowski said players should have the option to bid for leases off Alaska, a state that has seen offshore exploration dwindle while onshore activity has increased.

"Our technologies now allow us to be that much sharper, that much more certain, and to be able to do that much better," Murkowski told reporters. "So we're looking forward to the offshore."

When asked if there was commercial interest in some areas currently off limits to drilling activities, such as the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, Murkowski said: "You don't know until you have the opportunity to put the leases out there. We know that this is a competitive environment, we know in Alaska we're high-cost environment, but we also know we've got some pretty extraordinary resources...We need to set that table for participation and you do that by offering lease sales."

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