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Yukon Flats EIS scheduled to start in 2006 Land swap would consolidate Doyon Ltd. oil and gas prospects; basin has estimated 173 million barrels of oil, 5.5 tcf gas Alan Bailey Petroleum News Staff Writer
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has contracted with ENSR International to do the environmental impact statement for the proposed Yukon Flats land swap, Ted Heuer, Yukon Flats National Wildlife refuge manager, has told Petroleum News. A kick-off meeting for the EIS will be scheduled in 2006, he said.
The purpose of the land swap, which would be between Fish and Wildlife and Doyon Ltd., a Fairbanks-based Alaska Native regional corporation, is to consolidate some existing Doyon oil and gas prospects in the Yukon Flats with prospects on adjacent Fish and Wildlife Service land.
The Yukon Flats consists of a 13,500 square mile lowland area around the Yukon River, between the trans-Alaska pipeline and the Canadian border. According to a 2004 U.S. Geological Survey assessment the Yukon Flats sedimentary basin might contain 173 million barrels of oil, 5.5 trillion cubic feet of gas and nearly 127 million barrels of natural gas liquids. And, since the area of the proposed land swap is thought to be particularly prospective, the swap would likely lead to oil and gas exploration in the flats. Controversy among communities Some communities in the flats have expressed vehement opposition to the land swap proposal while others have expressed support.
Supporters of the land swap see an opportunity for economic development in an area. An influx of oil and gas money could help ensure the survival and long-term sustainability of the Yukon Flats communities, they think. And oil and gas development in the area would provide income for Doyon, the owner of Native subsurface land in the region. Doyon profits generate dividends for Native shareholders from the region.
However, the residents of some communities see the swap as a threat to the traditional way of life in the flats especially as, under federal regulations for land valuations, the Native people would relinquish a larger land acreage than they would receive. Opponents of the swap also think that oil or gas development would damage the natural environment on which the communities depend for their subsistence lifestyle. EIS not legal requirement Although an EIS is not a legal requirement for the land swap, the level of controversy and a barrage of questions relating to the proposals convinced Fish and Wildlife that an EIS should be carried out.
“One of the things that we did hear from a lot of people in the public meetings and through the comments that we’ve received so far was that people wanted us to do an EIS,” Heuer told Petroleum News in June. “We decided to give everyone who wants to weigh in on the issues more time to think about it and we’ll have a better evaluation of the social and economic-type impacts that could be associated with this.”
And as part of the standard EIS procedure, Yukon Flats residents and other interested parties will enjoy an early opportunity to help specify the scope of what the EIS will consider.
“We will be scheduling a series of public (scoping) meetings in the middle to end of March,” Heuer said.
Heuer thinks that it will take about a year to complete a draft EIS document.
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