ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Federal officials have given tentative approval to a plan by ConocoPhillips (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and partner Anadarko Petroleum Corp (APC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) to develop five satellite oil pools around the oil-rich Alpine field on Alaska's North Slope.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued a final environmental impact statement recommending that the companies be allowed to go forward with developing the satellites, located in the northeastern corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and in the Colville River delta along the reserve's edge.
The satellite fields will provide 330 million barrels of oil, according to the BLM, and continue the oil industry's westward progression on the North Slope.
Environmentalists have criticized the Alpine satellite plan as a rollback of environmental protections promised during the Clinton administration.
If the fields are approved and developed, they would provide the first commercial oil production ever in the Indiana-sized petroleum reserve. The large land mass was set aside in 1923 for its energy potential but, until recently it has been ignored in favor of the region to the east, around the giant Prudhoe Bay field.
The BLM said it expects production from the five new fields to start in 2006, supplementing production from the 429-million-barrel Alpine field. Alpine, the North Slope's westernmost operating oil field, has a daily output of about 100,000 barrels.
The companies' plan is to have oil from the five new fields processed at the Alpine's facilities before being shipped eastward to the intake station of the trans-Alaska pipeline.
ConocoPhillips spokeswoman Dawn Patience said the company was pleased with the environmental impact statement and with the work by the BLM and cooperating state and federal agencies.
But the company is waiting until there is a final decision by BLM before making a commitment to proceed with the project, she said. The company is also in the process of seeking permits from various agencies, she said.
"Permits for the project have to be in hand and a record of decision has to be made before we can decide what to do with our winter work schedule," she said.
A final decision is expected in October, after a 30-day public comment period is completed, said BLM spokeswoman Jody Weil.
The BLM's preferred alternative for development includes pipelines, gravel access roads and a bridge across the braided Colville River. The BLM is proposing to allow development within a three-mile creek buffer established for ecological reasons in 1998.
But BLM officials said allowing road construction within the setback, where the tundra is better suited to development, offers more protection of the Arctic habitat than forcing roads to snake around lakes and varied vegetation outside of the setback.
"We avoid the lake. We actually stay on that relatively moist tundra," Weil said.
Story by Yereth Rosen
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
