Logistics will be challenge in northwest NPR-A

Kristen Nelson

Bureau of Land Management officials said Jan. 16 that logistics will be even more of a challenge for oil and gas exploration in the northwest National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska than where companies are now exploring in the northeast NPR-A.

At a scoping meeting in Anchorage, BLM said companies exploring in the northeast build ice roads in from existing infrastructure around Nuiqsut: Ice road construction began around the first of the year with two companies, Phillips Alaska Inc. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., planning to drill this winter.

Ice roads are expensive and BLM said part of its planning for the northwest NPR-A will be looking at alternate ways to get in. Both Barrow and Wainwright are on the coast of the northwest NPR-A and could provide access, as could old distant early warning radar sites.

The cost and time to build ice roads are considerable even in the northeast NPR-A, and BLM said it is looking at a proposal to over-summer a drill rig in the NPR-A.

A draft environmental impact statement will be available for the northwest NPR-A in November; a final plan is expected in the fall of 2003 and a notice of sale in November 2003 with a northwest NPR-A lease sale in mid-2004. A second northeast NPR-A lease sale is set for this summer.