Scoping period, meetings for coastal plain

Petroleum News

The federal Bureau of Land Management has set a scoping period of April 20 to June 19 for a coastal plain oil and gas leasing environmental impact statement to implement leasing on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The 2017 Tax Act requires at least two lease sales. BLM said the leasing EIS “may also inform post-lease activities, including seismic and drilling exploration, development, and transportation of oil and gas in and from the Coastal Plain.”

The leasing EIS “will consider and analyze the potential environmental impacts of various leasing alternatives, including the areas to offer for sale, and the terms and conditions (i.e., lease stipulations and best management practices) to be applied to leases and associated oil and gas activities to properly balance oil and gas development with existing uses and conservation of surface resources, and to limit the footprint of production and support facilities on Federal lands to no more than 2,000 surface acres,” BLM said.

The public scoping meetings will be held May 22 in the Community Hall in Kaktovik beginning at 6:30 p.m.; in the Community Hall at Arctic Village May 24 beginning at 10 a.m.; at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks May 29 at 4:30 p.m.; in the Dena’ina Center in Anchorage May 30 at 4:30 p.m.; in the Inupiat Heritage Center in Utqiagvik at 5 p.m. May 31; in the Village of Venetie Tribal Hall in Venetie June 12 at 10 a.m.; and in the National Housing Center in Washington, D.C., June 15, at 4:30 p.m.

BLM said the Fairbanks and Anchorage meetings will be livestreamed at: www.blm.gov/live.

The area comprising the Coastal Plain includes approximately 1.6 million acres within the approximately 19.3 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

- Petroleum News