RCA issues orders for two pipeline projects

BP Exploration (Alaska) will be taking its Liberty project to the BP board for sanction in April, BP spokesman Steve Rinehart confirmed to Petroleum News today. Rinehart characterized the request for board approval as the last of a series of BP internal approval gates that the project has to pass through. “We have successfully passed the preliminary company gates and we have hope for this last one,” Rinehart said. “We have done a great deal of good work on this project, but it is the board’s decision.” BP is also still working on the permitting for Liberty with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the North Slope Borough and the State of Alaska, Rinehart said. The U.S. Minerals Management Service has estimated the potential recoverable resources at Liberty as up to 105 million barrels of crude oil and up to 78.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas, including natural gas liquids. The approximately $1 billion development project would involve drilling extended reach wells to record-breaking distances from an extension of the Endicott satellite drilling island — the Liberty field lies under the waters of the Beaufort Sea, off Foggy Island Bay on Alaska’s North Slope. In early November MMS made a finding of no significant environmental impact for the Liberty development and production plan, with MMS approval of the plan following in early January. Editor’s note: See complete stories in March 2 issue of Petroleum News, available to subscribers online at noon, Friday Feb. 29 at www.PetroleumNews.com.