ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. is moving forward at the Greater Mooses Tooth unit.
The company has officially approved funding for the GMT-1 project, which will become the first oil development exclusively within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
The $900 million project will include construction of a gravel drilling pad, a 7.7-mile road and associated facilities and pipeline and an initial drilling program of nine development wells. The GMT-1 pad will have the capacity for as many as 33 wells. 
Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2017 and continue through 2018. The project is expected to employ approximately 700 people each winter, at its peak, plus support positions. The company expects to bring the GMT-1 pad into production in late 2018.
- ERIC LIDJI