The ConocoPhillips board sanctioned the project in October, Executive Vice President Exploration and Production Matt Fox said during a third quarter earnings call this morning. “The project is now pending partner approval, which is expected in November,” Fox said.

ConocoPhillips expects CD-5 production to begin in 2016, Fox said. The company previously estimated construction would begin in 2014 with first oil in late 2015.

After bringing the Alpine field at the Colville River unit into production in 2000, ConocoPhillips and its partner Anadarko brought three Alpine satellites online over the following decade: Fiord in August 2006, Nanuq in December 2006 and Qannik in 2008.

Also known as Alpine West, the CD-5 satellite would be the first development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, located just across the Colville River from Alpine.

The plans for how best to cross the river caused major delays.

In 2005, ConocoPhillips applied for a permit to build a utility bridge across the Nigliq Channel of the Colville, but withdrew the application in early 2008 after officials in Nuiqsut and the North Slope Borough questioned the proposed location of the bridge.

Once the parties agreed on a new location, ConocoPhillips resubmitted its application in 2009, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied the permit in early 2010, suggesting that ConocoPhillips use horizontal directional drilling to go under the Nigliq Channel.

Backed by state and congressional leaders, ConocoPhillips appealed the ruling. In late 2011 the Corps approved the bridge “with special conditions to ensure that all appropriate and practicable steps to minimize potential adverse impacts to the aquatic ecosystem have been taken, and to ensure the project would not be contrary to the public interest.”

—Eric Lidji

See story in Oct. 28 issue, available online on Friday, Oct. 26 at 11 a.m. at www.PetroleumNews.com