Conoco renewing North Slope spill plan

The state is reviewing a new oil spill contingency plan from ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc.

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation is taking comments on the plan through Jan. 17 and will hold a public hearing if it decides “good cause exists.”

The plan is actually a renewal of ConocoPhillips’ existing Oil Discharge Prevention and Contingency Plan for North Slope exploration. The plan proposes no specific exploration work but covers potential onshore exploration activities “located up to 130 air miles from established infrastructure, such as Barrow, Alpine, Kuparuk, or Deadhorse, or from a remote, year-round, aircraft-supported infrastructure, such as Inigok or Camp Lonely.”

The scope of the plan suggests ConocoPhillips is retreating from offshore exploration activities for the time being. The company relinquished its leases in the Beaufort Sea several years ago and suspended its Chukchi Sea program in early 2016.

The open-ended scope of the contingency plan also reinforces recent indications that ConocoPhillips is redoubling efforts at its onshore properties across the North Slope.

Over the past four years, ConocoPhillips has drilled nine exploration or appraisal wells at its four North Slope units - the Cassin No. 1 and No. 6 wells in the Bear Tooth unit in 2013; the Rendezvous No. 3 and Flattop No. 1 wells in the Greater Mooses Tooth unit in 2014; the Moraine No. 1 and DS3S-620 Moraine wells in the Kuparuk River unit in 2015; and the Tinmiaq No. 2 and No. 6 wells in the Greater Mooses Tooth unit and the CD5-21 (or “Hyperion “) well from the new CD-5 pad at the Colville River unit in 2016.

ConocoPhillips plans to explore this winter on leases previously associated with Tofkat unit. The state is considering a request to add those leases to the Colville River unit.

- ERIC LIDJI