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Objections roll in for new NPR-A plan Advocates for resource development say that BLM’s preferred plan unnecessarily blocks leasing in prospective areas of the reserve Alan Bailey Petroleum News
There has been the predictable flurry of objections from the more resource development inclined sectors of the community to the Bureau of Land Management’s preferred plan for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, or NPR-A. On Aug. 13 Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a preferred plan that puts much of the land on the northern side of the reserve off limits to oil and gas leasing, while making available for leasing about half of the reserve’s acreage. Interior says that the land that will be available for leasing contains much of the undiscovered oil and gas thought to exist deep under the Arctic tundra of the reserve.
Controversy But many in the resource development community disagree with Interior’s view. The northern area proposed to be closed to leasing lies along a geologic structure known as the Barrow Arch, a structure associated with the major producing oil fields of the North Slope. And, because of the patterns of heating of subterranean oil and gas source rocks, most petroleum geologists view the more southerly section of the North Slope as more likely to hold hydrocarbons in the form of natural gas rather than oil.
Unfortunately the northern part of NPR-A, thought by many to be particularly prospective for oil, also contains the environmentally sensitive Teshekpuk Lake and is home to a wide range of wildlife, including some threatened species. The area has become the site of something of a tug of war between those who think that environmental impacts can be effectively managed through responsible development and those who view the area as too environmentally sensitive to risk any disturbance.
USGS assessment The Bureau of Land Management’s view of the distribution of undiscovered oil and gas resources in NPR-A, a view that factors into the agency’s planning decisions, comes from the U.S. Geological Survey’s assessments of the reserves of undiscovered oil and gas resources. In 2010 USGS re-assessed the reserve, significantly downgrading its view of how much oil the reserve might hold. That downgrade was based on new well data which, USGS said, pointed to the hydrocarbon resources becoming increasingly gas prone east to west in the northern part of the reserve: Areas previously thought to possibly contain significant quantities of oil, especially in rocks broadly equivalent to the reservoir rock of the Alpine oil field in the Colville River Delta, are more likely to in fact contain gas, USGS said.
However, the USGS scientists think there is potential for finding oil in the relatively young and shallow rocks of what is termed the Brookian sequence.
Different view Richard Garrard, a petroleum geologist with extensive experience of industrial oil and gas exploration in NPR-A, has told Petroleum News that he disagrees with the USGS view that northern NPR-A is more gas prone to the west. And Garrard says that USGS did not base its findings on volumetric determinations from modern 3-D seismic data and that the agency did not use data from some key exploration wells when making its assessment. Garrard accuses the Bureau of Land Management of ignoring geologic factors such as the location of the Barrow Arch when preparing its NPR-A plan. In testimony to the bureau during the public review of the plan Garrard said that modern 3-D seismic has newly revealed potential oil and gas traps on the flank of the Barrow Arch.
USGS geologist Dave Houseknecht, a geologist with years of research experience in North Slope petroleum geology and the project chief for the USGS assessment, has told Petroleum News that the survey did view modern 3-D seismic data and data from recent exploration wells when conducting its 2010 assessment. And the USGS findings in that assessment are consistent with 3-D seismic and well data that the Bureau of Land Management has presented at conferences since the USGS NPR-A assessment was released, Houseknecht said.
Vociferous criticism Regardless of the technical subtleties relating to the oil potential of the northern part of NPR-A, Salazar’s Aug. 13 announcement has attracted vociferous criticism.
“The alternative preferred by Secretary Salazar in the NPR-A would restrict areas that have already been leased, where commercial potential has already been discovered,” said Richard Glenn, executive vice president for lands and natural resources for the Arctic Slope Regional Corp., or ASRC, in an Aug. 20 press release. “Waterfowl, fish and caribou do not recognize boxes on a map. Interior’s preferred alternative is based on a mistaken idea that somehow development can proceed in one part of the petroleum reserve only by locking up lands in another part.”
ASRC is the Native regional corporation for the North Slope and has subsidiaries that provide oilfield services, as well as having interests in North Slope oil exploration and development projects.
Congressional delegation On Aug. 22 the Alaska Congressional delegation sent a letter to Salazar.
“The production of oil and natural gas from offshore areas in the Arctic and onshore within the boundaries of the NPR-A offers untouched and promising sources of domestic energy and will also create tens of thousands of new jobs nationwide and new revenues for Alaska and the federal treasury,” the delegation wrote. “Unfortunately, we believe the preferred alternative selected by the Department of the Interior will significantly limit options for a pipeline through the NPR-A and will unnecessarily restrict access to rich oil and natural gas resources within the petroleum reserve.”
And a group of Alaska state lawmakers — Rep. Bill Stoltze, Sen. Charlie Huggins and members of the Mat-Su legislative delegation — sent a letter to Gov. Sean Parnell asking him to direct the attorney general to file an injunction blocking the federal government from “converting large portions of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska into a wildlife sanctuary,” according to an Aug. 20 press release from the group.
“This is one more of the growing list of excessive actions by the federal government,” said Rep. Stoltze. “We are calling on Gov. Sean Parnell and his administration to take action, as they have in the past, to preserve Alaska’s sovereignty in opposing the federal government’s obstruction to the growth and future of the State of Alaska.”
Environmentalist praise Environmental groups take a different view of the Bureau of Land Management’s decision.
“The secretary’s proposed action is an important step in the right direction for all Americans, including Alaska Natives, sportsmen, and other conservationists who want to balance energy exploration with wildlife protection in Alaska’s spectacular western Arctic,” said Ken Rait, director of the Pew Environmental Group’s Western Lands Initiative. “This proposal would make millions of acres available for oil and gas leasing, while preserving irreplaceable habitat for the western Arctic caribou herd in the Utukok Uplands and other wildlife areas.”
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