Conoco slowing Mooses Tooth pace

ConocoPhillips Alaska said Jan. 29 that it is slowing the pace of investment on the Greater Mooses Tooth 1 project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

“We are deferring the final investment decision for GMT1,” ConocoPhillips Alaska President Trond-Erik Johansen said in a statement. “The project is challenged by permitting delays and requirements, as well as the current oil price development. In 2015, we will continue to shoot seismic over the GMT1 area and progress engineering.”

The company said in April 2013 that it would begin the regulatory and permitting phase of the project and conduct engineering leading to project approval. It submitted permit applications in July 2013.

The Bureau of Land Management issued a final supplemental environmental impact statement for GMT1 in October, and while BLM’s preferred alternative includes a road, the road and pad are not ConocoPhillips’ preferred alternative. BLM has yet to issue a record of decision.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, however, issued its record of decision and wetlands permits in January, and chose the ConocoPhillips’ alternative as its environmentally preferred alternative and the least environmentally damaging practicable alternative. ConocoPhillips said when the Corps’ decision was issued that BLM’s mitigation measures “must be acceptable in order for the project to move forward for consideration by our senior management.”

BLM has yet to issue its record of decision.

Johansen said ConocoPhillips supports the Corps’ decision.

“The alternative they have selected has the least environmental footprint and requires the least amount of gravel,” he said, adding that the Corps’ decision has the support of the Kuukpik village corporation, Arctic Slope Regional Corp., the city of Nuiqsut, the North Slope Borough, Alaska’s congressional delegation and Alaska’s governor.

- Kristen Nelson