Published: March 14, 2023 | Share This

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The Biden administration on Monday approved a massive oil development project on Alaska’s North Slope, and said it is adding new environmental protections to limit future oil development in several areas of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

ConocoPhillips’ $8 billion Willow prospect in the Indiana-size reserve is expected to be one of the largest oil fields developed in Alaska in decades. It would produce oil for three decades, including 180,000 barrels of oil daily at its peak.

The administration approved three drill sites, which ConocoPhillips has said is economically viable. The approval is a reduction of the five drill sites that ConocoPhillips had originally sought, though the company said Monday that it’s pleased with the approval.

Many Alaska Native leaders, politicians, and business groups have lobbied intensely for approval of the field, saying it would provide badly needed revenues to support North Slope villages and help Alaska’s struggling economy — though the mayor of the Inupiaq village closest to the project had opposed it.

ConocoPhillips said Monday it expects to immediately begin building gravel roads to launch development. The company is also reviewing the 124-page decision from the Interior Department and internally will take steps toward making a final investment decision in the project.

“This was the right decision for Alaska and our nation,” said Ryan Lance, ConocoPhillips chief executive.

“Willow fits within the Biden Administration’s priorities on environmental and social justice, facilitating the energy transition and enhancing our energy security, all while creating good union jobs and providing benefits to Alaska Native communities,” added Lance.

The decision on Willow comes a day after the Biden administration announced it will limit oil drilling on 16 million acres in the NPR-A and the Arctic Ocean in an apparent nod to environmental groups that have fought the project.

Oil and gas development in the remote reserve has been limited to the northeastern corner. With many specific details of the administration’s plan uncertain, it was difficult to know on Monday how the additional protections will impact any future development plans.

Conservation groups said while they were pleased to see additional protections to limit drilling in the region, Biden’s approval of Willow overshadowed those environmental gains.

They said they plan to fight the decision.

Alaska’s congressional delegation said during a call with reporters Monday morning that the decision was a landmark moment and a critical step that will boost state revenue by billions of dollars, create more than 2,000 jobs and help the state’s long-struggling economy recover. The project is the largest oil project in Alaska in more than two decades, and is expected to significantly boost the long-flagging oil production that provides much of the state’s income.

“We finally did it, Willow is finally reapproved, and we can almost literally feel Alaska’s future brightening because of it,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski said.

The decision is “critically important” for Alaska’s economy, good-paying jobs for our families, and the future prosperity of our state. This decision is also crucial for our national security and environment,” Sen. Dan Sullivan said.

“Today, the people of Alaska were heard. After years of consistent, determined advocacy for this project, from people all across the state and from every walk of life, the Willow Project is finally moving forward,” Rep. Mary Peltola said.

They said they expect environmental groups to immediately file a request in federal court to halt the project. They said the compromises that have led to a smaller project will be a factor that will help protect the project in court.

“This is going to be the next hurdle, and it’s going to be a big battle, and it’s probably going to happen any day,” Sullivan said.

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said while he was pleased to see the approval of the project but disappointed by the plans to restrict future oil and gas development associated with the reserve.

“It’s disgraceful that the Biden administration thinks that this is a compromise that will benefit America,” Dunleavy said.

“Taking future oil production in Alaska off the map won’t decrease global oil consumption. It will just shift the market and give leverage to producers in countries that don’t have our high standards for the environment and human rights,” Dunleavy added.

The Voice of the Arctic Inupiat, representing several Inupiat organizations from the region that support Willow, said the project is important for Alaska Native self-determination and will help villages continue to support traditional activities such as whaling.

The group said the project will create jobs and contracting opportunities for Native-owned businesses, help boost property tax revenue to the eight-village North Slope Borough by more than $1 billion, and add about $2.5 billion to a fund that helps pay for village projects and programs.

“The Biden administration’s (decision) to advance the Willow Project will make it possible for our community to continue our traditions while strengthening the economic foundation of our region for decades to come,” the statement said.

The Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, Iñupiat Community of the Arctic Slope and the North Slope Borough said in a joint statement the decision recognizes that Willow “represents a new opportunity to ensure our Indigenous, Alaska Native communities’ ten thousand years of history has a viable future.”

The Interior Department said in a statement Monday that by allowing the development of three drill sites instead of five, nearly a dozen miles of roads and about 20 miles of pipeline are eliminated, reducing impacts to caribou migration and subsistence users.

ConocoPhillips has also agreed to relinquish nearly 70,000 acres of leases held in the same unit where the Willow project is located, the statement said. That will shrink the size of the unit by one-third, reducing the project’s freshwater use and scaling back the project within the constraints of valid existing rights under ConocoPhillips’ decades-old leases, Interior’s statement said.

The administration’s actions will also create an additional buffer from exploration and development activities near calving grounds and migratory routes for the Teshekpuk Lake caribou herd, an important subsistence resource for nearby Alaska Native communities, Interior said in the statement.

The Interior Department said it will launch a rulemaking process to achieve maximum protection for five special areas encompassing more than half of the reserve, including the Teshekpuk Lake special area. It will also take action to designate nearly 3 million acres in the Beaufort Sea near the reserve as indefinitely off limits for future oil and gas leasing, to protect habitat for whales, seals, polar bears and subsistence hunters.

Source: Anchorage Daily News

About ConocoPhillips
ConocoPhillips Company provides oil exploration and production services. The company offers processes, refines, and markets crude oil, natural gas, and petroleum products. ConocoPhillips serves customers worldwide.

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