|
BLM won’t lease Teshekpuk Lake in NPR-A Agency removes 219,000 acres of lake, islands; defers 430,000 acres north, east of lake for 10 years; sale likely this fall Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The Bureau of Land Management met one of the goals it had in revising its plans for the Northeast National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, but failed to find a way to offer the area’s most prospective oil and gas acreage, north and east of Teshekpuk Lake, for leasing.
In a supplemental final plan for northeast NPR-A, released May 16, the agency said it won’t be offering 219,000 acres of Teshekpuk Lake and its islands for leasing; and it will defer leasing on 430,000 acres north and east of the lake for 10 years.
The plan does, however, provide for performance-based stipulations similar to those BLM used in its northwest NPR-A plan. With performance-based stipulations, industry has to meet specific requirements — such as access for caribou under pipelines — and proposes how those stipulations will be met. By contrast, in the prescriptive requirements in the 1998 original northeast NPR-A plan BLM required five feet of clearance under pipelines, which turned out to be insufficient. With performance-based stipulations the agency will work with developers and local stakeholders, such as the North Slope Borough, to determine an appropriate height.
“BLM listened to local communities and it made the plan better,” North Slope Borough Mayor Edward Itta said in BLM’s release on the final plan. “The lease sale can proceed while one of the region’s most sensitive wildlife habitats will be protected. It’s a win-win.”
Environmental groups brought suit against a 2006 lease sale which included the area north of Teshekpuk Lake, believed to have the potential for discovery of as much as 2 billion barrels of oil and 3.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. As a result of the suit, there was a court injunction on the sale in the northeast and BLM only offered tracts in the northwest, returning unopened the bids it received for the northeast.
Directive to address cumulative impacts The supplemental final plan was developed beginning in December 2006 following the Sept. 25, 2006, federal District Court decision that the 2005 Northeast NPR-A amended integrated activity plan/environmental impact statement failed to adequately address cumulative impacts.
A draft of the supplemental plan was released in August. BLM said that after considering public comments on the draft it modified and selected Alternative D; a record of decision is expected by mid-summer, with a lease sale expected in the fall for both available portions of the northeast and portions of the northwest planning areas.
Jim Ducker, BLM environmental program analyst and the agency’s senior project lead on the plan, said the major difference between the August draft and the final is the 10-year deferral of leasing in the 430,000 acres north and east of Teshekpuk Lake. The agency had tried to make development north and east of the lake palatable by limiting the area allowed for surface development.
Ducker said the deferred lands have a great deal of resource value — they are an important waterfowl habitat for geese and the Teshekpuk Lake caribou herd calves there. These resources are also important for the subsistence way of life, he said.
The plan acknowledges the oil and gas value of the deferred area, he said, and noted that there is no particular hurry to lease those lands. The nearest infrastructure is 40 to 70 miles away, and even if BLM made them available immediately it seems very unlikely they would be developed immediately, he said.
Ducker said there are hundreds of thousands of acres to the east under lease or available for leasing, and while there has been exploration and some discoveries, development hasn’t occurred, although ConocoPhillips is pursuing permits for development.
BLM said in releasing the northeast supplemental final plan that the land it would make available could yield nearly 3 billion barrels of oil as well as trillions of cubic feet of natural gas.
Cumulative impact consideration expanded BLM said in the supplemental that the analysis of impacts was changed to meet the court-identified inadequacy and to reflect changed circumstances and new information since the amended northeast plan was prepared.
“Changes to the cumulative impact analysis to address the court’s concern focus on the relationship of oil and gas leasing and development in Northeast NPR-A on the one hand and the potential development and impacts from development in the Northwest NPR-A on the other,” BLM said.
Changed circumstances which have resulted in changes include:
• An increase in the price of oil, which was estimated at no more than $30 a barrel in the amended plan and is now based on the Department of Energy’s long-term projections of prices at $60 to $70 a barrel;
• Commercial gas development — considered speculative in the earlier analysis — is now considered;
• The impact of the U.S. Minerals Management Service lease sale in the Chukchi Sea;
• Impacts to polar bears based on the proposed listing as threatened (polar bears were listed as threatened earlier in May); and
• Relevant new studies of the area, including some related to resources and to global climate change.
| 