The Bureau of Land Management announced Monday its intent to conduct an environmental review for a new production site in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska on the state's North Slope.
ConocoPhillips Alaska applied for a permit for construction of the Greater Mooses Tooth 2 drill site and other facilities in August. The project would expand drilling in the NPR-A, after the company's CD5 site, which started producing oil in October, and Greater Mooses Tooth 1, a drill site the company expects to start producing oil in 2018.
GMT2 would be the second oil and gas development project authorized on federal lands within NPR-A (CD5 sits on Alaska Native corporation land inside the boundaries of the reserve), the BLM said in a news release.
The GMT2 site would have a 14-acre pad and up to 48 wells, and include an 8-mile gravel road, ConocoPhillips said. It would cost more than $1 billion to develop, and the company is planning for it to produce its first oil in the fourth quarter of 2020.
"I am pleased the Bureau of Land Management will begin its environmental review of ConocoPhillips' proposed oil and gas development of Greater Mooses Tooth 2 project," Gov. Bill Walker said in a statement. "With the Trans-Alaska Pipeline three-quarters empty, I am committed to working with our federal partners to spur production."
The land where GMT2 would be is currently managed by the BLM. An 8.6-mile pipeline and the road associated with the project would traverse federal lands and land owned by the Kuukpik Corp., the BLM said, and then both connect to the GMT1 project.
CD5, GMT1 and GMT2 are located on the eastern side of the massive 23-million acre reserve.
The environmental review will evaluate air quality, biological resources, cultural resources, social impacts, climate change effects and the cumulative impacts of this project in addition to others.
The BLM invites the public to provide comments as part of the review. Comments can be submitted via email at BLM_AK_GMT2_Comments@blm.gov, via fax at 907-271-5479 or via mail sent to GMT2 Scoping Comments, 222 W. Seventh Ave., Stop #13, Anchorage, Alaska, 99513.