Phillips gets ice road permit for McCovey well

Kristen Nelson

All of the permits are now in place to start ice road construction for Phillips Alaska Inc.'s offshore McCovey exploration well.

Dawn Patience, Phillips Alaska spokeswoman, told PNA that the North Slope Borough Assembly approved the ice road application Dec. 1.

The assembly had been asked by Phillips to overturn a decision by the North Slope Borough Planning Commission denying the ice road application (see story page A13).

Patience said Dec. 4 that some preliminary work is under way for the ice road; actual ice road construction is weather dependent, but is expected to begin before the end of the year.

Kevin Meyers, president of Phillips Alaska, told PNA Nov. 27, before the borough issued the permit, that if the borough did not overturn the commission's decision, Phillips would look for other avenues of appeal.

“We believe our permit has satisfied all the requirements,” he said. “This is just a permit for an ice road for an exploration well.”

He also said that resolution of the permit issue would have to be reached within a few weeks if the well was to be drilled this winter season, but indicated that if that happened, the company would try again next year.

“If we don't get a resolution of this in the next few weeks it would postpone the well for a year,” he said.

“We won't give up. We'll come back and try to work with everyone and get it set up to drill it next year. But we're hoping to get it drilled this year.”