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BLM ROD goes with Conoco, Corps Greater Mooses Tooth alternative
The Bureau of Land Management said Feb. 13 that it has issued a record of decision for the proposed Greater Mooses Tooth 1 development project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and has selected Alternative A as its development alternative.
BLM said issuance of the ROD opens “the way for the first production of oil and gas from federal lands” in the 23 million acre NPR-A.
However, GMT1-operator ConocoPhillips Alaska said in late January that it was slowing the pace of development at GMT1 due to permitting delays and the low price of oil.
Alternative A is the alternative proposed by ConocoPhillips, and the alternative selected in January by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in its record of decision as its environmentally preferred alternative and the least environmentally damaging practicable alternative.
In its final supplemental environmental impact statement, issued in January, BLM had selected Alternative B, based on keeping all GMT1 permanent oil and gas infrastructure outside the three-mile setback from Fish Creek.
In a Feb. 13 email statement ConocoPhillips Alaska said the company was “pleased that the BLM has approved a road route that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers” had selected in its record of decision.
“We are reviewing the details of the ROD and cannot comment on the exact details until the review is complete,” the company said.
Different conclusion When BLM released the final supplemental environmental impact statement for the project in late October and indicated that its preferred alternative was not the company’s preferred plan, ConocoPhillips said that while the company was pleased BLM had chosen “a roaded alternative as their preferred alternative,” Alternative B, which BLM said it preferred, was not the alternative the company proposed.
At that time the Corp of Engineers had not yet determined which alternative was the least environmentally damaging practicable alternative, and ConocoPhillips said it “expects that the BLM has flexibility to approve the alternative selected by the Corps.”
In a Jan. 16 record of decision the Corps of Engineers selected Alternative A, the ConocoPhillips’ proposal, as having “the least fill footprint in waters of the U.S.”
The Corps said Alternative A “would result in the smallest footprint impacts to aquatic resources; no direct fill in streams/fish habitat; smaller overall impacts to wildlife habitat; and presents drier wetlands to construct access due to its location in the watershed.”
ConocoPhillips said it supported the Corps decision.
“The alternative they have selected as the LEDPA has the least environmental footprint and requires the least amount of gravel. However, we still need a ROD from the BLM,” the company told Petroleum News in a Jan. 21 email, adding that, “The BLM mitigation measures must be acceptable in order for the project to move forward for consideration by our senior management.”
Pace slowed On Jan. 29 ConocoPhillips Alaska said it was slowing the pace of investment in Greater Mooses Tooth 1.
“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,” he said.
ConocoPhillips Alaska said in a Feb. 17 email that the seismic program over GMT1 is nearly complete, and the engineering work is continuing.
In its record of decision BLM said that under the Clean Water Act the Corps of Engineers “may not issue a Section 404 permit for an alternative other than the LEDPA.” BLM said it recognized in its final SEIS “that the Corps’ ultimate LEDPA determination would need to be considered by BLM in making a final decision on this project, and which could result in the modification or change in the alternative selected in this ROD.”
Alternatives A and B are similar “with respect to certain resource impacts,” BLM said, and combined with the Corps’ determination that Alternative A is the LEDPA, “and the fact that mitigation measures have been developed to reduce the additional impacts associated with Alternative A to acceptable levels, BLM is adopting Alternative A in this ROD in order to coordinate the BLM’s and the Corps’ decisions.”
BLM said the selection of Alternative A also avoids conflicting federal permitting decisions, in accordance with a 2011 Executive Order titled “Interagency Working Group on Coordination of Domestic Energy Development and Permitting in Alaska.”
In its statement on the ROD BLM said it “incorporates a robust package of mitigation requirements, including an $8 million contribution” from ConocoPhillips to a compensatory mitigation fund. A strategy will be developed for the fund, including input from local Native communities, on the best uses of the mitigation funds, the agency said.
ConocoPhillips said in a Feb. 17 email that it “voluntarily agreed to contribute $8 million” to the compensatory mitigation fund, with $1 million to be used to fund a regional mitigation study and $7 million used to fund mitigation projects identified by the regional mitigation study “for the benefit of local residents and subsistence users, including members of the Native Village of Nuiqsut.” The $7 million portion would be paid after construction has started.
- Kristen Nelson
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