A changing NPR-A planning scenario

According to the Bureau of Land Management’s new draft integrated activity plan and environmental impact statement for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, or NPR-A, BLM has recognized that in the time since the agency developed the existing plans for the northwestern and northeastern parts of the reserve several significant changes impacting planning assumptions have occurred.

For example, changing oil prices have caused the agency to use as planning assumptions an oil price of $180 per barrel and a natural gas price of $9.33 per thousand cubic feet, the draft document says.

Since earlier NPR-A plans were issued, the U.S. Geological Survey has substantially cut its estimate of undiscovered oil resources in NPR-A. And there has been an increasing interest in the potential for oil and gas development in the Chukchi Sea, with the resulting possible need for oil and gas pipelines from the Chukchi Sea coast across NPR-A to the central North Slope.

From an environmental perspective, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has listed as threatened the polar bear, an animal that can be found in coastal areas of NPR-A. The National Marine Fisheries Service has proposed the listing of bearded and ringed seals, and has found that the listing of the Pacific walrus is warranted, the draft document says.

Compared with earlier NPR-A plans, BLM has updated and broadened its analysis of the potential cumulative impacts of development activities on the North Slope and has taken into account several new studies relating to the potential impacts of activities on surface resources, public health and climate change, the draft document says.

—Alan Bailey