The Alaska Department of Natural Resources has announced that the eastern and western coastal areas of state land on Alaska’s North Slope are open for winter tundra travel effective 8 a.m. Dec. 19. The opening applies only to those operators with valid off-road vehicle travel permits for state-owned lands on the North Slope.
“Field sampling on Dec. 18, 2006, indicated that both the eastern and western coastal areas have met the criteria for opening (6 inches of snow and minus 5 C or colder soil temperature at 30 centimeters depth),” the department said.
However, DNR warned that snow is still thin in some areas and that operators should pay attention for stipulations for required ground frost and snow cover. It may be necessary to use special construction techniques to protect the tundra in areas of thin snow, or to avoid these areas altogether.
The lower and upper foothills areas remain closed to tundra travel. Until those areas are open, DNR will approve projects in those areas on a case-by-case basis.ing costs and risks.
He said the U.S. and Canadian governments will be lobbied to introduce simpler and more predictable regulatory approval processes, while the Alaska government will be asked to provide greater certainty on taxes and royalties.
In the meantime, the team that has worked on the feasibility study is being demobilized, including 100 staff from sponsor companies who will be reassigned to other work and 800 contract workers.
"It doesn't mean we are giving up," said Carruthers. "BP remains committed to the prospect of Alaska gas development. We will be working very hard to reduce cost, reduce risk to make it economically viable."
Otherwise he expressed disappointment that the U.S. Senate made moves on March 6 to require a gas pipeline from the North Slope to follow an overland route along the Alaska Highway, rejecting a northern route across the Beaufort Sea to the Mackenzie Delta.
Carruthers said "anything that limits this project is not positive."
