Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will visit Alaska this month to discuss energy development on federal lands, among other issues, the agency said today.

Salazar's visit, which will be his fourth to Alaska during his tenure as secretary, comes as the agency weighs whether to issue final permits for Royal Dutch Shell PLC to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean.

While Salazar has said he expects to make a final decision on the permits by Aug. 15, it was unclear whether the company's drilling project is on the secretary's agenda.

"During his visit, Salazar is expected to discuss balanced energy development, management of public lands, and issues facing Alaska's Native and rural communities," Interior spokesman Blake Androff said.

Additional details about the trip are expected to be released in the coming days.

Interior has already issued conditional approval of Shell's plans to drill up to five wells this summer in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. The department's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement must still issue individual well permits before drilling may begin.

Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said he was aware of Salazar's trip but was unsure of his plans. The company is also nearing the end of construction and Coast Guard certification of its Arctic Challenger vessel, a critical component of the company's oil spill response fleet. Final drilling permits from Interior are contingent on the Coast Guard's certification, Smith said.

The next week will likely include additional deployments of the barge for regulators, he said. The Hague, Netherlands-based company is hopeful the vessel will be ready to move north in a matter of days.

But summer drilling also depends on U.S. EPA's review of air emissions from generators on Shell's Noble Discoverer drillship. And unusually heavy ice pack in both seas remains an issue, he said.

"Sea ice is bordering our Chukchi prospects and is still quite persistent in the Beaufort," Smith said in an email. "We are still confident we can accomplish meaningful work in 2012, and that's our goal."

Salazar's visit will follow a tour of Alaska this weekend by Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) of state-owned lands on the North Slope as well as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve.

"We truly need to implement policies that allow us access to our natural resources for the good of the nation's energy security, as well as the jobs that would come with responsible development," Murkowski said in a statement this afternoon. "We have tremendous reserves, we have the technological know-how, and we have incredible public support. The only thing standing in our way is the federal government."

The announcement of Salazar's visit comes roughly one year after he joined Interior Deputy Secretary David Hayes, Murkowski and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) on an aerial tour of the Beaufort and Chukchi coasts to observe current and proposed oil and gas production sites. That trip also included visits to Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve, the North Slope, Denali National Park and a new Indian Health Service hospital in Barrow.