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Liberty up for April corporate sanction
Alan Bailey Petroleum News
BP Exploration (Alaska) will be taking its Liberty project to the BP board for sanction in April, BP spokesman Steve Rinehart confirmed to Petroleum News Feb. 22. Rinehart characterized the request for board approval as the last of a series of BP internal approval gates that the project has to pass through.
“We have successfully passed the preliminary company gates and we have hope for this last one,” Rinehart said. “We have done a great deal of good work on this project, but it is the board’s decision.”
BP is also still working on the permitting for Liberty with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the North Slope Borough and the State of Alaska, Rinehart said.
In early November U.S. Minerals Management Service made a finding of no significant environmental impact for the Liberty development and production plan. MMS released its environmental assessment for Liberty in early December for public comment and on Jan. 3 the agency issued its approval of BP’s plan.
MMS has estimated the potential recoverable resources at Liberty as up to 105 million barrels of crude oil and up to 78.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas, including natural gas liquids. The approximately $1 billion development project would involve drilling extended reach wells to record-breaking distances from an extension of the Endicott satellite drilling island — the Liberty field lies under the waters of the Beaufort Sea, off Foggy Island Bay on Alaska’s North Slope.
Drilling from Endicott The approved plan for Liberty entails the drilling of six development wells from the Endicott satellite island. Production would be from one to four producing wells, using one or two water injection wells. Oil would be piped to the Endicott production island for processing along with Endicott production, before being transported via the existing Endicott sale-oil pipeline to the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.
The extended reach drilling at Liberty would involve horizontal departures of 34,000 to 44,000 feet, requiring the use of a purpose-built rig that will be the largest land rig in the world, BP has said.
The MMS approval of BP’s plan for Liberty involves several stipulations, including requirements for permits to drill, wildlife monitoring programs and a Letter of Authorization from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the unintentional disturbance of polar bears. MMS also requires BP to “amend the existing Endicott and Badami Oil Discharge Prevention Contingency Plan (ODPCP) to incorporate potential spills from the Liberty project.”
And on Feb. 28 the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation announced that BP has applied for approval of an amended Endicott and Badami ODPCP. The revised plan is subject to a 30-day public review period and is available from DEC at the department’s Anchorage or Fairbanks offices, or from the North Slope Borough.
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