With legal challenges resolved, for now, ConocoPhillips moves ahead with big Willow oil project

ConocoPhillips’ big Willow oil project has cleared most of its legal challenges and the company is moving ahead with an ambitious winter construction program on the North Slope.

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied an appeal Dec. 18 by conservation groups and an Alaska tribe of a lower court decision that approved Willow, which is in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

The decision upheld the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s approval of permits for WillowAlaska U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason ruled earlier in favor of the project and denying the plaintiff’s claims.

The lawsuit was brought by Inupiat for a Living Arctic, an Alaska tribal group. An environmental law firm, the Center for Biological Diversity, led the plaintiffs’ case.

"ConocoPhillips is pleased the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the plaintiffs’ request for an injunction pending appeal. ConocoPhillips is proceeding with Willow construction as we continue to review the court’s decision” company spokesperson Rebecca Boys said in a statement Dec. 19.

Environmental groups had argued that BLM did an inadequate review of environmental impacts of construction at Willow.

The request for an injunction to stop work was denied by the appeals court but the main lawsuit contesting the BLM decision will continue. Opening briefs from the plaintiffs in the main case are expected Dec. 29, according to the Ninth Circuit court decision with reply briefs from the BLM and ConocoPhillips are requested by Jan. 12.

The appeals court judges also accepted Alaska’s congressional delegation and the state of Alaska as intervenors.

BLM approved a plan by ConocoPhillips to build three drill sites, roads, pipelines and an airport at the Willow discovery site in the northeast NPR-A. The location, on federal lands, is west of the producing Alpine field, also owned by ConocoPhillips, which is on state-owned lands near the Colville River boundary between the state and federal lands.

The NPR-A is a large 23-milion-acre federal reserve on the North Slope originally created in 1923 by President Warren Harding as Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4, to assure an oil supply for the U.S. Navy.

Little oil was found despite extensive exploration by the Navy and other agencies after World War II. It was only in recent years, with exploration led by private companies, that commercial-scale finds were made.

Now that construction has started, ConocoPhillips will build gravel roads this winter along with beginning installation of Vertical Support Members built to support field pipelines.

A production facility at also planned at the Willow site to process crude oil for pipeline shipment from raw oil and gas. Two smaller ConocoPhillips projects built earlier in the petroleum reserve, GMT-1 and GMT-2, do not have on-site processing.

The two producing projects send raw oil and gas fluids, and produced water, to the Alpine field plants a few miles to the east. Having a stand-alone production facility at Willow will enhance the development of nearby oil prospects, potentially expanding future production at Willow.

The company expects to have up to 1,200 at work on Willow construction this winter. Construction of the $7 billion to $7.5 billion project will take several years with most work being done in winter when the land surface is frozen.

Completion is expected in 2029. In production, Willow will peak at 180,000 b/d, ConocoPhillips has said.

A second major oil project is also being built this winter. It is the Pikka project on state lands just east of the national petroleum reserve where Willow is located.

Santos Ltd., of Australia, and Repsol, a Madrid-based company, are partners in Pikka. This is the second winter of construction for that project.

Pikka’s phase one is to be complete by mid-2026., producing 80,000 barrels per day. Santos and Repsol plan a phase two at Pikka to bring production to about 120,000 b/d.

Santos has said it will have about 1,000 employed on its winter construction.