Biden administration greenlights three drilling sites on Alaska’s North Slope
(The Center Square) – The Biden administration announced the approval of three drilling sites in Alaska’s North Slope on Monday, a move that reduces the project’s original scope by 40%.
ConocoPhillips requested five drilling sites in its Willow Master Development Plan. The company will relinquish 68,000 acres of leases in the area, according to a news release from the Department of Interior.
“The concurrent relinquishment of 68,000 acres by the company of its existing northernmost and southernmost leases within the Bear Tooth Unit reduces the Bear Tooth Unit’s footprint in the NPR-A by one-third,” the department said. “This reduces the project’s freshwater use and eliminates all infrastructure related to the two rejected drill sites, including approximately 11 miles of roads, 20 miles of pipelines, and 133 acres of gravel, all of which reduces potential impacts to caribou migration and subsistence users.”
The announcement on the Willow Project is the second one regarding Alaska in two days. The Biden administration said Saturday it is declaring about 2.8 million acres in the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean as “indefinitely off limits for future oil and gas leasing.” The Department of Interior is also considering rulemaking for what it calls “additional protections” for more than 13 million acres in Alaska.
