Comments for ANS pipelines extended

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources said April 24 that Commissioner Mike Menge has extended the comment period deadline on the Eastern North Slope oil and gas pipeline applications, including the design basis and environmental report, submitted by the Office of Project Management and Permitting.

The comment period deadline will close at 5:00 p.m., June 8.

The department said that to establish standing to seek judicial review of a decision under AS 38.35.200, a person who has a direct financial interest affected by the lease must have submitted objections by 5:00 p.m., April 24.

Comments may be submitted in writing to the State Pipeline Coordinator’s Office, 411 W. 4th Ave., Suite 2C, Anchorage AK 99501 or by facsimile to 907-646-5012.

The Joint Pipeline Office accepted the department’s applications for the rights of way for pipelines between the Point Thomson area on the eastern North Slope and the area of Pump Station 1, at the northern end of the trans-Alaska pipeline, in February.

The state said in September that it had not decided whether to build the pipelines but was applying for the rights of way to expedite potential oil and gas development at the eastern end of the North Slope.

Former DNR Deputy Commissioner Dick LeFebvre told Petroleum News at that time that the state wants to be ready if there is an opportunity for eastern North Slope development: “Future explorers working offshore or onshore will know they will have a pipeline they can tap into,” he said.

A company interested in building one or both of the lines could take over DNR’s rights of way to “build a regulated pipeline (common carrier line), one any company could use, which is what this pipeline would have to be,” LeFebvre said.

The pipelines proposed by the state would each be 45 miles in length and would occupy overlapping 700-foot wide rights of way on state lands. The oil pipeline would sit on vertical support members but the natural gas line might be buried for all or part of its length. In the absence of information on future oil and gas production from the eastern end of the North Slope DNR has not yet determined the diameters of the pipelines, but the pipelines need to be piggable and are not expected to carry more than 1 million barrels per day of oil and 2 billion standard cubic feet per day of natural gas, according to the applications.

—Petroleum News