State and industry officials in Alaska are increasingly concerned that National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska management plans proposed by the Department of the Interior could preclude or impede a pipeline across the NPR-A for oil and gas discovered in the Chukchi Sea.
State officials criticized Interior's focus on conservation rather than oil and gas in the reserve.
"There has been an inappropriate substitution of administration policy to manage NPR-A as a conservation unit," Ed Fogels, state deputy commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources told the federal Bureau of Land Management in a hearing Thursday night.
Shell is exploring in the Chukchi this summer and hopes to move any oil and gas discovered to shore by pipeline and across NPR-A to the Trans Alaska Pipeline System, officials told BLM at the hearing.
Interior is considering three management plans for the 23 million-acre reserve.
One plan being considered, dubbed Alternative B, precludes exploration and facilities along coastal areas of the reserve, Lon Kelly, BLM's Arctic field office manager, said at the hearing.
ConocoPhillips' Alaska land manager, Dave Brown, said the Alternative B and an Alternative C, which allows more land for leasing and facilities, are of concern. ConocoPhillips has done extensive NPR-A exploration and now plans drilling in the Chukchi Sea, Brown said.
The company favors an Alternative D, which allows virtually the entire reserve to be leased, he said.
Even where NPR-A tracts can be leased there are complex setback requirements because of numerous lakes and rivers. Those requirements would make siting of surface facilities or pipeline planning difficult or impossible.
The same restrictions along NPR-A's coasts that could impede a Chukchi Sea pipeline could also block onshore facilities and pipelines serving a discovery in state-owned submerged lands immediately north of the federal onshore lands, several speakers at the hearing said.
ENVIRONMENTALISTS BACK PLAN B
Environmental groups testified in favor of Alternative B. Wendy Loya, an ecologist with the Wilderness Society, said even the moderate Alternative C could result in a 10% loss of habitat for wildlife and the most liberal Alternative D could result in a loss of 30% of habitat.
The estimates were based on studies of Prudhoe Bay-area oil development impacts on habitat, Loya told BLM.
"Alternative B would preserve most of the habitat, would allow some leasing and would encourage the industry to find ways to minimize habitat loss when drilling and developing fields," Loya said.
Most of the criticism from state and industry officials focused on Interior's exclusion from leasing in two of the three management plans of highly prospective areas near Teshepuk Lake in the northeast NPR-A coastal area.
Even in the most liberal Alternative D leasing plan, which in theory would allow leasing along the coast, restrictions around lakes and streams in the Teshepuk Lake area would make development difficult.
Environmental groups have successfully pushed Interior to exclude the area because of its extensive use by migratory waterfowl.
Richard Garrard, a petroleum geologist with extensive industry experience in NPR-A, said geologic conditions along the Barrow Arch, a broad geologic feature that extends along the northern Alaska coast, are optimal for oil and gas, as evidenced by the large discoveries further east at Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk.
Garrard has said previously that estimates for discoveries in NPR-A by the US Geologic Service are low because the data used by the agency does not include results of exploration wells drilled in recent years.
BLM's Kelly said Interior has not chosen a preferred alternative, but will do so by the time the EIS is finalized in mid-November. A Record of Decision on the EIS, and the selection of a management plan, will be done by mid-December, he added.
