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Willow work paused
District court issues injunction, barring all gravel work until Feb. 20
Alan Bailey for Petroleum News
On Feb. 6 the federal District Court in Alaska issued a preliminary injunction, temporarily banning ConocoPhillips from conducting gravel mining and road construction for the company’s Willow oil field development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The court is, however, allowing the company to construct ice roads for its planned winter work program.
Last year Sovereign Inupiat for a Living Arctic and four environmental organizations filed an appeal in District Court against the Willow development - in December the organizations requested an injunction, banning all development activities in the field until the court case is resolved. On Feb. 1 District Court Judge Sharon Gleason rejected the injunction request, arguing, among other things, that the plaintiffs had not demonstrated that the planned upcoming work in the project would result in irreparable environmental damage.
In response, the plaintiffs in the case appealed the injunction request to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Although the plaintiffs asked for a 9th Circuit ruling by Feb. 4, the 9th Circuit court had yet to respond when Petroleum News went to press.
Judge Gleason issued her Feb. 6 injunction in recognition of the appeal to the 9th Circuit. The injunction remains in effect until Feb. 20, or until the 9th Circuit rules on the original injunction, whichever comes first.
Irreparable alteration In her injunction order Gleason said that ConocoPhillips plans breaking ground at the Willow gravel mine on Feb. 12, at which point the landscape would be irreparably altered. Thus, some impact of the development would already have happened, should the 9th Circuit Court subsequently decide that an injunction halting the development is appropriate. Hence the need for a brief and limited injunction, pending the 9th Circuit decision.
Gleason also said that a resident of the village of Nuiqsut, about 7 miles from the planned Willow gravel mining site, had demonstrated that the start of blasting operations at the site would cause irreparable impacts to traditional uses of the mining area.
ConocoPhillips spokesperson Rebecca Boys confirmed to Petroleum News that the District Court injunction is temporary in nature and is limited to gravel mining and gravel road construction. It does not prevent ongoing ice road construction activities, Boys said. Boys commented that the Willow development has the potential to create hundreds of direct jobs and thousands of construction jobs. First oil is anticipated in 2026, with the ensuing production in excess of 100,000 barrels per day resulting in billions of dollars in revenues, shared between the state, the North Slope Borough and the federal government, Boys said.
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