U.S. BLM could pare back big Willow oil project in latest environment review, but production increase still significant

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued a revised environmental assessment of ConocoPhillips’ Willow project on Alaska’s North Slope July 7 and also proposed a new alternative configuration of the project that would reduce environmental impacts.

The new design, put forth to meet a 2021 federal court order, would include three production sites rather than five and would relocate facilities sway from ecologically sensitive areas, according to the document released July 8.

Alaska’s U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski welcomed the announcement and said getting Willow approved is her top priority with the Interior Department.

The senator said she hopes BLM’s review can be completed in time for construction to begin this winter.

Willow is important because it can significantly increase Alaska oil production at time when aging producing fields on the North Slope are gradually declining.

“The State continues to support development in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, consistent with longstanding federal law,” said Akis Gialopsos, Acting Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, or DNR.

“ConocoPhillips’ Willow project would provide significant benefits. Current geopolitical events only further confirm development of these resources is critical to our long-term national security,” Gialopsos said.

Significantly, the revised three-pad plan would result in slightly more estimated oil production than ConocoPhillips’ proposal, a peak of 183,200 barrels per day in the second year of operation rather than 182,200 barrels per day in the original five-pad plan, the document said.

This is also achieved with fewer overall production wells for the project, or 219 wells compared with 251. The difference appears to involve a strategy of drilling long extended-reach horizontal wells, so that underground reservoir targets can be reached from greater distances from surface facilities.

At the same time, BLM acknowledged that the relocation and scaled down production facilities would leave parts of the oil reservoir undeveloped.

“BLM expects that the company would relinquish significant lease rights in the TLSA (Teshekpuk Lake Special Area), an ecologically important wetland that hosts thousands of birds and the Teshekpuk caribou herd,” the BLM said in a statement.

These areas are in the northern part of the Willow project area.

However, the agency also includes an option of an additional drill site in the future and included it in the review published July 7. If that were built the project would have four drill sites instead of three, possibly mitigating some effects of reduced access to the reservoir.

The new project reconfiguration is in a new “Alternative E” that was published. As is usual in federal Environmental Impact Statements the analysis includes a “no action” option as Alternative A; ConocoPhillips’ proposal as Alternative B; two options of building the project with no all-year gravel road access, instead relying on snow roads in winter and air access in summer, listed as Alternatives C and C.

The new Alternative E has all-year road access, which ConocoPhillips argues is important for safety, but fewer producing pads and surface impacts.

In publishing the new review, technically a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement replacing a previous EIS approved by the Trump administration in 2020, BLM is not committed to any of the alternatives.

That will be decided in the Record of Decision, which is issued at the end of the environmental review.

However, while BLM is keeping options open the agency seems likely to lean toward the new Alternative E because it addresses a key part of the late 2021 decision by U.S. District Court Sharon Gleason that the agency had not done a thorough analysis of alternatives that would reduce impacts.

Gleason’s order was in response to lawsuits brought by conservation groups against the original approval. Judge Gleason also said BLM had done an inadequate review of greenhouse gas emissions over the life of the project, particularly the “downstream” emissions resulting from use of the oil produced at Willow.

A strengthened emissions analysis is included in the new environmental review.

Murkowski said Willow has broad support from Alaskans including the Alaska Federation of Natives, and Alaska Native communities on the North Slope.

In a statement, ConocoPhillips spokesperson Rebecca Boys said, “The Willow project will supply much needed energy for the United States, while serving as a strong example of environmentally and socially responsible development that offers extensive public benefits,” Boys said.

Murkowski said, “Willow shas gone through several extraordinarily stringent environmental reviews and will adhere to world-class safety and environmental standards.”

Meanwhile, the state DMR has been participating in development of the SEIS as a “cooperating agency,” Gialopsos said, which gives the agency special status in the EIS process.

“We are actively reviewing the SEIS to confirm it is consistent with the multi-year, multi-step public process that has occurred to date and reflects the social and economic value the project brings to Alaska,” Gialopsos said.