Federal judge approves ConocoPhillips’ Willow oil project

A U.S. District Court judge in Alaska gave approval Feb. 9 for ConocoPhillips’ $7.5 billion Willow oil project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, parties involved in litigation against the project said.

The decision, by federal judge Sharon Gleason, upheld the U.S. Interior Department’s approval of the project and dismissed complaints in lawsuits filed by conservation groups and a tribal group in the region.

Dawnell Smith, spokesperson for Trustees for Alaska, the environmental law firm leading the litigation against the project, said attorney with her group are still going through Gleason’s 91-page decision but that the initial conclusion is that the court gave approval without conditions.

ConocoPhillips praised the decision: “The court’s decision confirms our confidence that the BLM’s review complied with all legal requirements,” said Erec Isaacson, president, ConocoPhillips Alaska. “Willow underwent nearly five years of rigorous regulatory review and environmental analysis, including extensive public involvement from the communities closest to the project site.”

“We now want to make this project a reality and help Alaskan communities realize the extensive benefits of responsible energy development,” Isaacson said.

Certain construction activities on Willow are already underway, the company said, such as fabrication work on oil processing modules on the U.S. gulf coast.

A gravel mine and an access road near the Willow field site have already been built.

Willow is an undeveloped oil discovery in the federal reserve west of the producing Alpine field and other North Slope fields. The project involves three new drill sites, an oil and gas processing facility and pipelines providing a connection to the Alpine field and eventually to the Trans Alaska Pipeline System at Prudhoe Bay.

When developed Willow will produce 180,000 barrels per day beginning in 2029, ConocoPhillips has said, making a substantial addition to production from the North Slope that is now less than 500,000 barrels per day.

Conservation groups have fought the project over several years arguing that it will damage sensitive environmental habitat areas and endanger wildlife.

In its approvals earlier the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the Interior Department agency that administers the petroleum reserve, scaled back ConocoPhillips’ original plan for five drill sites to three and also required the company to give up some leased acreage in an ecological sensitive area.

“This decision is bad news for anyone who cares about the climate and future generations,” said Bridget Psarianos, senior staff attorney with Trustees for Alaska. The Trump administration had approved the project, an action blocked earlier by Judge Gleason in the litigation.

The Biden administration’s changes to the project after Gleason’s rejection of its permits amount to “window dressing,” Psarianos said, that was done without a serious look at other options that would reduce impacts.

Willow is not the only new oil project that will be proceeding on the North Slope. Australia-based Santos, Ltd. and its partner Repsol, based in Madrid, are now in construction of their Pikka project, which is on state of Alaska lands east of the NPR-A.

Pikka will produce 80,000 barrels per day in its first phase, with first production expected in mid-2026. A phase two of the project, which is not yet approved, will expand its production to 130,000 barrels per day, Santos has said.

Santos, the operator at Pikka, now has drilling of production wells underway and will begin construction of pipelines and other facilities this winter.