The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is launching an environmental review of what it is calling the first development well proposed for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
The federal land manager is supplementing its 2004 Alpine Satellite Development Plan environmental impact statement to evaluate a proposal from ConocoPhillips to build a drilling pad and associated facilities at the Greater Mooses Tooth unit, in the NPR-A.
The supplemental EIS will address “any relevant new circumstances and information” since the federal land manager released the 2004 document. Those include environmental studies, land management plans and development plans released over the past decade.
For the GMT-1 project, ConocoPhillips is proposing an 11.8-acre gravel pad capable of accommodating approximately 33 wells. A 7.8-mile gravel access road would connect the GMT-1 pad to the Alpine CD-5 pad currently under construction. The access road would also accommodate pipelines, power lines and other associated infrastructure.
The BLM is taking written comments on the proposed scope of the supplemental EIS through Sept. 6, but the agency is not currently planning to hold any scoping meetings.
The supplemental EIS could open the door for ConocoPhillips to become the first company to produce oil and gas from the NPR-A since President Warren G. Harding set aside the 22.1 million-acre region back in 1923 as the Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4.
The CD-5 pad is technically within the boundaries of the NPR-A, but sits on Native land, which would make GMT1 the first NPR-A development on exclusively federal lands.
Polar Bears, etc
From an environmental standpoint, much has changed in the past decade.
The supplemental EIS will likely consider recent multi-year studies on regional hydrology, birds and caribou, a regional climate change assessment for the NPR-A, and new information on the gravel source ConocoPhillips proposes to mine for the project.
Also since 2004, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has listed the polar bear as a threatened species under the endangered species act and proposed critical habitat for it.
Another big change since 2004 is the recently adopted Integrated Activity Plan for the NPR-A. The plan drew criticism from some proponents of oil and gas development for its restrictions on future leasing and its ability (or potential inability) to streamline construction of a major pipeline from the Chukchi Sea to existing infrastructure. The plan drew less criticism for its expansion of the Alpine system, which could bode well for ConocoPhillips in its attempt to take these early steps into NPR-A oil and gas production.
Similar to CD-6
From a development standpoint, little has changed over the past decade.
The GMT-1 proposal is “very similar” to Alpine CD-6 (Lookout) pad the BLM approved in its 2004 decision, according to the agency, but does include some “notable changes.”
Those mostly stem from a different location proposed for the drill site, which would reduce the length of roads and pipelines and therefore also reduce the amount of gravel required for construction. The GMT-1 project also proposes to lengthen a Ublutuoch River bridge, require 3.3 additional miles of ancillary pipeline from the CD-1 pad to a pipeline tie-in north of the CD-4 pad, and accommodate larger pipelines in the future.
The supplemental EIS will also consider future drilling, such as a GMT-2 pad.
Under the current plan, ConocoPhillips would transport a three-phase stream from GMT-1 to the Alpine Central Facility, where it would continue to the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.
Original Alpine satellite
After ConocoPhillips brought the Alpine field online in 2000, it began strategically developing satellites too small to justify standalone facilities but too valuable to pass up.
When ConocoPhillips submitted its Alpine Satellite Development Plan in 2003, it proposed five Alpine satellites to be called Fiord, Nanuq, Lookout, Spark and Alpine West and hinted at 10 additional oil accumulations within 30 miles of Alpine that could become future satellites. To date, the company has brought three Alpine satellites online: the Fiord satellite from the CD-3 pad in August 2006, the Nanuq satellite from the CD-4 pad in December 2006 and the Qannik satellite from an expanded CD-2 pad in 2008.
The Alpine West satellite at the CD-5 pad is currently under construction.
The other satellites ConocoPhillips explicitly mentioned in its 2004 document were the Lookout satellite at a CD-6 pad and the Spark satellite at a CD-7 pad, both in the NPR-A.
Around that time, ConocoPhillips described the Lookout satellite as being “marginally economic,” but said the economics would be improved by CD-5, specifically by a bridge across the Nigliq Channel of the Colville River to connect CD-5 to existing Alpine infrastructure. The bridge triggered years of permitting delays for ConocoPhillips, but with the issue finally resolved it now promises to provide a “gateway” into the NPR-A.
To resolve those permitting issues, ConocoPhillips revised its CD-5 application in 2009.
The revision changed the names of CD-6 and CD-7 to GMT-1 and GMT-2, respectively, to better distinguish between the Alpine and Greater Mooses Tooth developments.
The 2009 document said GMT-1 would be some eight miles southwest of CD-5, and would host between eight and 16 wells, but acknowledged that plans could change.
The original 2004 documents imagined CD-6 production beginning in early 2010, which may have been feasible if not for the delays associated with permitting the CD-5 pad. By 2009, ConocoPhillips was providing a post-2014 start up date for the NPR-A satellites.
ConocoPhillips actively explored in the NPR-A in the 2000s, making several discoveries. The BLM formed the Greater Mooses Tooth in 2008 and expanded it in mid-2009.
