Draft EIS out for Liberty project

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued the draft environmental impact statement for Hilcorp Alaska LLC’s Liberty project Aug. 17.

Publication of the DEIS opens a 90-day public comment period, extending through Nov. 18.

The DEIS and instructions for commenting are at www.boem.gov/liberty.

Hilcorp is proposing a small gravel island in federal waters of the Beaufort Sea five miles off the coast in Foggy Island Bay, some 20 miles east of Prudhoe Bay.

BOEM said the 9-acre island would have a pipe-in-pipe subsea pipeline to deliver oil to shore, connecting to the Badami pipeline.

The agency said Hilcorp’s project design includes numerous measures to mitigate potential impacts. Mitigation measures which the federal government would require will be determined during the National Environmental Policy Act review process and Endangered Species Act consultations.

(See full story in Aug. 27 issue of Petroleum News.)

- KRISTEN NELSON