Page 15 - NorthAmOil Week 33

NorthAmOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES NorthAmOil

ConocoPhillips’

Willow project in

Alaska on path to

approval

ALASKA CONOCOPHILLIPS’ proposed Willow pro-
ject, on Alaska’s North Slope, is set for federal
approval after the US Bureau of Land Manage-
ment (BLM) published its final environmental
review of the plan last week.
According to the BLM’s final Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) for Willow, the project
would have peak output of over 160,000 barrels
per day (bpd), equating to roughly 590mn bar-
rels of oil in total over its 30 to 31-year lifespan.
If it is built, then Willow, which is located in the
National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A),
would be the westernmost development on the over the Colville River and a heavy reliance on The updated plan for
North Slope. the firm permafrost in order to build oil drilling Willow calls for the
There are hopes that Willow will help offset pads, gravel roads and air strips. This is a shift construction of ice and
Alaska’s declining production, which has fallen away from ConocoPhillips’ original plan for the gravel roads to the site.
from a peak of over 2mn bpd in 1988 to around project, which called for the construction of a
404,000 bpd today. ConocoPhillips is Alaska’s temporary gravel island in the shallow waters
largest producer by volume, with output of of Harrison Bay, off the coast of the NPR-A,
218,000 bpd in the state during the first quarter as a staging area to move infrastructure to the
of 2020, before it curtailed some of its produc- Willow site. But local communities opposed the
tion in response to the collapse in crude prices. plan, and the company ended up scrapping it in
It began restoring the curtailed output in Alaska favour of gravel and ice roads.
and elsewhere in July as oil prices stabilised. The BLM is giving the public 30 days to com-
A notable aspect of the Willow project is ment on the final plan, which has already drawn
that it would use cooling equipment to keep the inevitable criticism from environmental groups
land below its roads and drilling pads frozen in that oppose all new Arctic development.
As well as the summer. This comes as rising temperatures Days after the final EIS for Willow was pub-
are resulting in permafrost thawing – the BLM lished, the US Department of the Interior (DoI),
using cooling noted in its review that average annual air tem- of which the BLM is part, announced that it had
equipment, peratures in Alaska were projected to increase finalised a plan to open up a portion of the Arc-
by 2-4 degrees Fahrenheit between 2021 and tic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling.
ConocoPhillips 2050. And on the North Slope, temperatures The area being opened up covers the ANWR’s
are forecast to increase by 10-12 degrees Fahr-
entire 1.56mn acre (6,313 square km) coastal
is proposing to enheit by the end of the century if global green- plain.
Lease sales in Alaska have been lacklustre
house gas (GHG) emissions continue to increase
build thickly dug unchecked. in recent years, with low oil prices deterring
As well as using cooling equipment, Cono-
producers from targeting the region when they
gravel roads and coPhillips is proposing to build thickly dug have cheaper and less complex options in the
drilling pads. gravel roads and drilling pads in an effort to Lower 48 states and elsewhere. Indeed, the tech-
offset damage caused by thawing and shifting nical aspects of ConocoPhillips’ plan for Willow
permafrost. The BLM noted, however, that illustrate the growing complexity of drilling in
ConocoPhillips’ operations could exacerbate the Arctic, as the region is increasingly affected
thawing of permafrost, for example if road dust by climate change. Thus any upcoming lease
from the gravel roads hastens the pace of soil sales in the ANWR – a date for which has not
thawing where it settles. And gravel used to fill been disclosed – would be unlikely to draw
in collapsed soil can transfer heat from above the significant interest. Nonetheless, the decision
ground and melt the ice beneath it. to open up more of the ANWR to oil and gas
The plan for Willow calls for the construction development will be strongly opposed by envi-
of 495 miles (797 km) of ice roads, an ice bridge ronmental groups.™

Week 33 20•August•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P15