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DEIS out for Beaufort, Chukchi sales Minerals Management Service issues draft environmental impact statement for Alaska OCS sales scheduled for 2010, 2011, 2012 Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The U.S. Minerals Management Service has published a draft environmental impact statement for Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Sea oil and gas lease sales planned for 2010-12. BLM said in a Dec. 19 Federal Register notice that the DEIS is a draft of the National Environmental Policy Act analysis that will enable the agency to make decisions on configurations of the lease sales and applicable mitigation measures.
The proposed sales are: Beaufort Sea sales 209 (2010) and 217 (2011), and Chukchi Sea sales 212 (2010) and 221 (2012). There will be a separate record of decision for each sale, the agency said, and for Beaufort Sea sale 217 and Chukchi Sea sale 221 there will be an evaluation of new information to determine if a supplemental EIS is needed for those sales.
MMS held public scoping meetings in Barrow, Nuiqsut, Kaktovik, Wainwright, Point Hope and Point Lay — all in the North Slope Borough — and in Anchorage.
A public hearing on the DEIS is scheduled in Anchorage Jan. 15 at 7 p.m. in the first floor conference room at the Centerpoint Building, 3801 Centerpoint Drive, with public hearings to be scheduled between Jan. 16 and March 15 in Kaktovik, Wainwright, Point Lay, Point Hope, Barrow and Nuiqsut. Comments are being accepted until March 16.
MMS has 735 active leases in Alaska outer continental shelf waters, all but two (part of the state-federal Cosmopolitan unit in Cook Inlet in Southcentral Alaska) are Beaufort or Chukchi sea leases.
Issues identified MMS identified a number of major issues from scoping comments, including protection of subsistence resources and the Inupiat culture and way of life; potential disturbance to bowhead whale-migration patterns; terrestrial and aquatic habitat disturbances and alterations including discharges and noise; effects from accidental oil spills on the environment; lack of effective oil-spill-response technology in the Arctic environment under some conditions; concerns over contamination of sediments, the water column and the food chain that potentially could be associated with OCS oil and gas development; contribution of proposed actions to climate change; lack of baseline data for some resources in the Arctic OCS; cumulative effects of climate change and Arctic oil and gas activities on the existing Arctic environment and environmental resources; future effects of existing activities on human and natural environments on the North Slope; and cumulative effects of past, present and reasonably foreseeable future activities on the people and environment of Alaska’s North Slope.
Beaufort DEIS alternatives For Beaufort Sea sales 209 and 217 the alternatives are:
•Alternative 1 — no lease sale.
•Alternative 2 — entire area, some 33.2 million acres, would be offered, minus any blocks under lease.
•Alternative 3 — Barrow deferral (from comments received in Barrow): to reduce potential conflicts between bowhead whale subsistence hunters and offshore oil and gas operations the area offshore Barrow, some 68,000 acres, would be deferred. MMS said this proposed deferral area adjoins an area that the State of Alaska has deferred in recent state sales.
•Alternative 4 — Cross Island deferral (issues identified by Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, Native Village of Nuiqsut and North Slope Borough): to protect Nuiqsut subsistence bowhead whaling area the area north and east of Cross Island, some 208,000 acres, would be deferred.
•Alternative 5 — Eastern deferral (requests by Native Village of Kaktovik and AEWC): to protect Kaktovik subsistence bowhead whale area, some 284,000 acres would be deferred. MMS said this proposed area adjoins an area the State of Alaska has deferred in recent state lease sales.
•Alternative 6 — Deepwater deferral: since deepwater area of Beaufort Sea unlikely to contain economically viable fields, some 24 million acres, 71 percent of proposed action area, would be deferred. MMS said this would result in a negligible reduction of commercial resource potential. Under this proposal some 1,766 blocks would be offered, minus any currently under lease, comparable to the number of blocks offered in the most recent Beaufort Sea sale held in August 2007.
Chukchi DEIS alternatives For Chukchi Sea sales 212 and 221 the alternatives are:
•Alternative 1 — no lease sale.
•Alternative 2 — entire area, some 40.2 million acres, would be offered, minus any blocks under lease.
•Alternative 3 — coastal deferral (Corridor II deferral developed by MMS for sale 193 in response to scoping comments): to reduce potential conflicts between subsistence users and OCS oil and gas operations. This was the configuration for sale 193 held in February 2008; some 4.8 million acres deferred; reduction of 17 percent of commercial resource potential.
•Alternative 4 — Ledyard Bay deferral (addresses critical habitat issues identified by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for protection of spectacled eiders): defers some 1.1 million acres in and around Ledyard Bay; reduction of 7 percent of commercial resource potential.
•Alternative 5 — Hanna Shoal deferral (minimizes impacts to recognized ecologically sensitive area): defers some 1.1 million acres encompassing Hanna Shoal, identified as important feeding area for Pacific walrus and grey whales; reduction of 4 percent of commercial resource potential.
•Alternative 6 — Deepwater deferral: since deepwater area of Chukchi Sea unlikely to contain economically viable fields, some 5.6 million acres, 13.9 percent of proposed action area, would be deferred. MMS said this would result in a negligible reduction of commercial resource potential. Under this proposal some 6,306 blocks would be offered, minus any currently under lease, comparable to the number of blocks offered in the most recent Chukchi Sea sale held in February 2008.
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