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BLM receives 400,000 comments on plan State argues agency overstepping authority; North Slope Borough wants more area opened for exploration, ditto for ConocoPhillips Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The Bureau of Land Management received nearly 400,000 comments on its draft integrated activity plan and environmental impact statement for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
Alaska BLM district spokeswoman Artealia Gilliard said the majority of comments received were part of a campaign or multiple campaigns organized by environmental and conservation groups in support of “Alternative B” in the draft plan.
The 400,000 comments exceeds the number received on previous plans, Gilliard said: about 97,000 comments on the Northwest NPR-A plan in 2003; nearly 215,000 comments on the Northeast NPR-A amended IAP/EIS in 2005; and about 146,400 comments on the Northeast NPR-A supplemental IAP/EIS in late 2007.
Alternative B describes future management that emphasizes protection of surface resources with substantial increases in areas designated as special areas, designation of extensive areas that would be unavailable for leasing around Teshekpuk Lake, in coastal bays and lagoons and in the southwestern part of NPR-A with important caribou habitat and important primitive recreation values, and recommendation for designation of 12 wild and scenic rivers, while still offering opportunities for oil and gas leasing on nearly half of NPR-A, Gilliard said.
She said BLM is on track to issue the final EIS and IAP in November, and with 30 days between that and the issuance of a record of decision, the process will be complete by the end of the year.
Separately BLM earlier in the year ask for nominations for an NPR-A lease sale to be held this November. Gilliard said the general area made available for nominations for the sale is similar to Alternative B because that is an area covered by previous plans. Comments and nominations for the November sale closed in mid-June.
Importance of NPR-A to residents “Among all stakeholders, the future management of the NPR-A is of the greatest importance to the Inupiat people of the North Slope,” the North Slope Borough told BLM in comments on the draft integrated activity plan and environmental impact statement, IAP/EIS.
The borough said it expects to play a “meaningful role” both in the remainder of the IAP/EIS planning effort and in “any future planning efforts and management.”
“As we embark on a process which may lead to the industrialization of vast areas of the North Slope for decades to come, it is in the best interest of all agency, industry, community and public stakeholders that we proceed as true partners and neighbors,” the borough said.
In its comments the borough repeatedly noted the challenge of balancing the need for revenue from oil development with the “vibrant traditional subsistence culture of our people.”
The borough proposed adding the southern region of NPR-A to the areas already available for leasing and applying the current package of stipulations and required operating procedures from the 2008 record of decision for the Northeast planning area to the entire NPR-A.
The area in the former Northwest planning area currently deferred from leasing until 2014 “should be included in future lease sales upon expiration of the deferral.”
The area north and east of Teshekpuk Lake, now deferred from leasing, should be subject to a new National Environmental Protection Act review scheduled to produce a record of decision to coincide with the July 16, 2018, expiration of the deferral. That area is considered to have high oil and gas value, the borough said, but also has great importance for waterfowl, caribou, other resources and subsistence.
The borough said that arguments in favor of leasing the entire NPR-A “ignore both the needs and concerns of the Alaskans who directly depend upon the wildlife and other resources of the NPR-A for their physical and cultural health.”
It said that science supports that caribou should not be disturbed in their “calving and insect relief areas, and key migratory corridors”; birds should not be disturbed “in their nesting, brooding and molting areas”; and natural hydrologic patterns should not be disrupted to the extent that fish populations are significantly impacted.
Economic wellbeing vs. subsistence While the economic wellbeing of the borough is dependent on new oil and gas leasing, exploration and development, “in certain limited areas, permanent surface facilities and their associated activities cannot be made compatible with critical resource concentrations or subsistence uses,” the borough said, and it is best to identify those areas before leasing as it is more difficult to restrict operations once hydrocarbons have been discovered.
On special area designations the borough said the starting point for its support “is that there can be no further restrictions on subsistence use or access.”
The borough said wild and scenic river designation doesn’t include specific protections or prohibitions, but said it is “concerned that such a designation would open the door to measures that would restrict subsistence use and access,” and said it opposes “any designation which would restrict our residents’ use of an area.”
On the subject of a pipeline from the Chukchi Sea, the borough said BLM talks about a “NEPA process,” but said a full EIS is warranted, and if that is BLM’s expectation, then it should be so stated.
It also said that a pipeline route should be placed near “previously identified but otherwise uneconomic oil and gas accumulations.”
The borough said it has been working with Chukchi Sea leaseholders and federal agencies and expects that discoveries would be transported via a subsea pipeline to shore and then across NPR-A to the trans-Alaska pipeline, and “will oppose any proposal to use tankers to transport produced Chukchi Sea oil to market.”
State disputes authority The State of Alaska supports Alternative D, which allows BLM to offer all of NPR-A for leasing, protecting surface values with a collection of protection measures.
But in comments from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, the state disputes the basis for BLM’s planning.
Congressional direction for NPR-A is provided under the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976, as amended, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, DNR Commissioner Dan Sullivan said in a cover letter to the state’s comments.
But BLM “selectively disregards” the congressional direction provided under those acts, he said, “and inappropriately applies administrative policy to the NPR-A,” and instead of planning for NPR-A as a petroleum reserve, “the purpose for which it was established ... the draft plan implies the area should instead be managed as a conservation system unit.”
Sullivan also said the state opposes the creation of deferral areas with indeterminate durations.
In spite of dates given for the end of deferrals, “If history is a guide, the future availability of these deferred lands is anything but certain,” Sullivan said. “It appears just as likely that future planning alternatives might deem these areas permanently off-limits for surface activities, or that future oil and gas lease sales will not encompass the entire planning area, and will simply offer portions of the NPR-A not included in these long-deferred lands.”
He said the state expects the deferred areas to be included in BLM’s annual call for lease nominations “immediately after the deferral period ends.”
Sullivan also said the state “continues to encourage BLM to incorporate a thorough assessment of potential pipeline corridors” to deliver outer continental shelf oil and gas through NPR-A to market. He said the draft EIS “must provide more specific provisions for onshore infrastructure” to move oil and gas to the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.
“Restrictive surface protection measures, Special Area designations, and stipulations must not prevent the transport of Chukchi oil and gas to market,” Sullivan said.
He cited these issues as just a few examples where the draft IAP/EIS “will discourage — not encourage — accessing and developing abundant hydrocarbon reserves within the NPR-A.”
Conoco concerns with planning ConocoPhillips Alaska also supports Alternative D, but in comments highlighting concerns with the draft IAP/EIS, the company’s HSE vice president Alaska, Wesley Heinold, said the company opposes “proposed actions that would presumptively eliminate or discourage areas from potential oil and gas exploration.”
He noted that for some NPR-A lands, this third plan within eight years is “an unprecedented action,” and said because “costs and uncertainty are high” in NPR-A, “the best means of promoting exploration that may lead to discovery and development of economic domestic hydrocarbon reserves is to maximize the area available for leasing ... while still ensuring through lease stipulations and required operating procedures that surface values are adequately protected.”
A land management plan faithful to the stated objectives of the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act and the goals of BLM in the planning process would “allow for oil and gas leasing across the broadest spectrum” of NPR-A, “while ensuring protection of surface resources and uses through lease stipulations,” required operations procedures and best management practices; limit creation of special management areas; and avoid overlaying protections in the NPRPA and other permitting requirements with new wilderness designations, he said.
Heinold said the NPRPA established the basis upon which BLM “is to harmonize oil and gas leasing, exploration, and development opportunities with important surface resources,” and nomination of areas for wilderness or wilderness management “will not increase the rigor of already required federal regulatory reviews and permitting processes,” but “can only presumptively maximize federal land management planning conflicts” within NPR-A.
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