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Released April 27, 2022 | SUGAR LAND
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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on April 25 released a management plan for the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A), the country's largest area of public land for oil and gas drilling, that will eliminate almost half of the 23 million acres available for potential drilling.
The move still leaves nearly 12 million acres available for oil and gas leasing, or 52% of the existing land, but reverses a Trump-era plan to allow oil drilling on more than 80% of the reserve, which sits on the western side of Alaska's North Slope. There was never a lease sale under the Trump administration's plan.
According to the Record of Decision, "this plan makes 11.8 million acres within the NPR-A available for oil and gas leasing and makes lands available for applications for pipelines and other infrastructure to support oil and gas development within the NPR-A, as well as neighboring offshore and onshore areas. At the same time, this plan provides important protections for habitat areas critical to numerous subsistence species as well as coastal waters...."
Crude oil production in Alaska averaged 437,000 barrels per day (BBL/d) in 2021, according to the U.S Energy Information Administration (EIA), the lowest level of production since 1976. And the BLM in January approved just 95 permits for oil and natural gas wells across federal lands in the U.S., and 186 in March, a stiff drop from the 643 issued last April, according to a news report from E&E News.
ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) (Houston, Texas) is a major presence in the reserve, with active projects that include the Willow project in its Bear Tooth development, west of Prudhoe Bay. The project includes constructing a central processing facility with a 130,000-BBL/d capacity, five drill sites and a transportation pipeline, among other work. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Oil & Gas Production and Pipelines databases can click here for a list of related projects.
The project would pump more than 500 million barrels of oil over 30 years--releasing more than 250 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), according to estimates by the BLM.
In August 2021, a U.S. District Court ruling reversed the Trump-era approval of the project, after determining the BLM's Interior Department failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a bedrock U.S. environmental protection rule, and the Endangered Species Act. The decision sent the project back to the BLM for further environmental review, and the agency is preparing a supplemental environmental impact statement "to address deficiencies identified by the court decision, and to ensure compliance with applicable law," according to the project's information page on the BLM website. "This process will rely on meaningful input from federal agencies, environmental organizations, Alaska Native organizations, numerous State of Alaska agencies and the affected communities along the North Slope."
ConocoPhillips' oil and gas production efforts in Alaska's North Slope hit another potential snag beginning in early March, when more than 7.2 million cubic feet of natural gas escaped from a leak at its Alpine field development while drilling a waste disposal well--which forced personnel to evacuate and cut production. The leak has been stopped at the source, according to the company, although small amounts of gas are still coming up from the ground.
Democrats from the U.S. House of Representatives have sent a letter to the company seeking more information on the leak: "The ongoing leak and ConocoPhillips' response raises a number of troubling questions, including how your company would respond to similar leaks at your proposed Willow project inside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska," Representative Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona.), chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, and others, wrote to Ryan Lance, chief executive officer of ConocoPhillips.
Industrial Info is tracking $2.4 billion worth of capital-spending oil and gas production projects in Alaska that have a high and medium (70-99%) probability of moving forward as planned. Subscribers can click here for a full list of detailed project reports. The majority of the activity is attributed to ConocoPhillips, with more than $1.8 billion in planned investment.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the world's leading provider of market intelligence across the upstream, midstream and downstream energy markets and all other major industrial markets. IIR's Global Market Intelligence Platform (GMI) supports our end-users across their core businesses, and helps them connect trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated project opportunities. Follow IIR on: LinkedIn.
The move still leaves nearly 12 million acres available for oil and gas leasing, or 52% of the existing land, but reverses a Trump-era plan to allow oil drilling on more than 80% of the reserve, which sits on the western side of Alaska's North Slope. There was never a lease sale under the Trump administration's plan.
According to the Record of Decision, "this plan makes 11.8 million acres within the NPR-A available for oil and gas leasing and makes lands available for applications for pipelines and other infrastructure to support oil and gas development within the NPR-A, as well as neighboring offshore and onshore areas. At the same time, this plan provides important protections for habitat areas critical to numerous subsistence species as well as coastal waters...."
Crude oil production in Alaska averaged 437,000 barrels per day (BBL/d) in 2021, according to the U.S Energy Information Administration (EIA), the lowest level of production since 1976. And the BLM in January approved just 95 permits for oil and natural gas wells across federal lands in the U.S., and 186 in March, a stiff drop from the 643 issued last April, according to a news report from E&E News.
ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) (Houston, Texas) is a major presence in the reserve, with active projects that include the Willow project in its Bear Tooth development, west of Prudhoe Bay. The project includes constructing a central processing facility with a 130,000-BBL/d capacity, five drill sites and a transportation pipeline, among other work. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Oil & Gas Production and Pipelines databases can click here for a list of related projects.
The project would pump more than 500 million barrels of oil over 30 years--releasing more than 250 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), according to estimates by the BLM.
In August 2021, a U.S. District Court ruling reversed the Trump-era approval of the project, after determining the BLM's Interior Department failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a bedrock U.S. environmental protection rule, and the Endangered Species Act. The decision sent the project back to the BLM for further environmental review, and the agency is preparing a supplemental environmental impact statement "to address deficiencies identified by the court decision, and to ensure compliance with applicable law," according to the project's information page on the BLM website. "This process will rely on meaningful input from federal agencies, environmental organizations, Alaska Native organizations, numerous State of Alaska agencies and the affected communities along the North Slope."
ConocoPhillips' oil and gas production efforts in Alaska's North Slope hit another potential snag beginning in early March, when more than 7.2 million cubic feet of natural gas escaped from a leak at its Alpine field development while drilling a waste disposal well--which forced personnel to evacuate and cut production. The leak has been stopped at the source, according to the company, although small amounts of gas are still coming up from the ground.
Democrats from the U.S. House of Representatives have sent a letter to the company seeking more information on the leak: "The ongoing leak and ConocoPhillips' response raises a number of troubling questions, including how your company would respond to similar leaks at your proposed Willow project inside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska," Representative Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona.), chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, and others, wrote to Ryan Lance, chief executive officer of ConocoPhillips.
Industrial Info is tracking $2.4 billion worth of capital-spending oil and gas production projects in Alaska that have a high and medium (70-99%) probability of moving forward as planned. Subscribers can click here for a full list of detailed project reports. The majority of the activity is attributed to ConocoPhillips, with more than $1.8 billion in planned investment.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the world's leading provider of market intelligence across the upstream, midstream and downstream energy markets and all other major industrial markets. IIR's Global Market Intelligence Platform (GMI) supports our end-users across their core businesses, and helps them connect trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated project opportunities. Follow IIR on: LinkedIn.
