US oil and gas companies may get more leasing opportunities in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska under a series of proposals being reviewed by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management.
BLM Jan. 17 asked for public comment on four possible land management plans for 8.8 million acres of public lands in the northwestern portion of NPR-A.
Out of the four land-use options, three proposals would allow varying degrees of new drilling; one alternative would ban new oil and gas leasing. Options include:
- Alternative A would make all BLM-administered lands in the planning area available to oil and gas leasing. Although there would be no special areas shielded exclusively for wildlife, protection measures would include applying stipulations and required operating procedures; additional environmental restrictions could occur later on specific activities.
- Alternative B.would make 96% of BLM-administered lands in the planning area (100% of the area of high oil and gas potential) available for oil and gas leasing. The proposed Kasegaluk Lagoon Special Area would not be available for leasing. No permanent oil and gas facilities would be allowed either in designated "special areas" or—excepting two right-of-way sites to be designated at Peard Bay and near Wainwright—in and along the shores of the coastal bays and lagoon (including islands in those bays and lagoons). Stipulations and required operating procedures would place further restrictions on the placement of permanent oil and gas facilities around lakes, rivers, and important habitat. Offshore exploratory drilling would be allowed only in winter in the coastal bays and lagoons from bottom-fast ice pads, natural islands, and human-made gravel islands, BLM said.
- Alternative C would make 47% of the BLM-administered lands in the planning area available for oil and gas leasing while emphasizing protection of specific resources through barring lease sales, excluding permanent oil and gas facilities, or both, in sensitive areas. In addition, federal subsurface oil and gas underlying surface lands owned or selected by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act village corporations for Atqasuk, Barrow, and Wainwright would not be available for leasing. Under this alternative, less than 2% of the area considered as being high in oil and gas resource potential would be made available for leasing.
- The No Action Alternative reflects current BLM management of the planning area, and the agency's decision that a 1983 environmental study of the area is inadequate for a renewed leasing program. Under this alternative, no new oil and gas leasing would occur.
No preferred alternative
BLM-Alaska State Director Henri Bisson said BLM is soliciting comment on what lands, if any, the agency should offer for oil and gas leasing, what measures should be developed to protect important surface resources, and what nonhydrocarbon land allocations should be considered.
BLM stressed that the agency has not made any decision yet and did not identify which option it prefers. Regulators noted that impacts on land and the environment vary depending on how much leasing occurs. Alternative A would have the greatest impact because it would likely lead to the most seismic surveys, exploratory drilling, and development, BLM said. However, the agency also predicted that under this scenario "impacts in most instances would be minor. The footprint would be unlikely to destroy more than 1,500 acres of soil or vegetation."
Environmental groups, meanwhile, argue that allowing standard leasing in the region would create a much larger footprint than industry's contention. They say the pipelines and infrastructure associated with drilling would hurt wildlife and ruin a fragile ecosystem that is similar in some, but not all, respects to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Producers see access to NPR-A, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain, and other public lands as an important issue. A May 2002 report by the US Geological Survey said that the potential volume of undiscovered oil and gas resources within NPR-A is much greater than previously thought (OGJ Online, May 17, 2002).
The 2002 reassessment shows 1.3-5.6 billion bbl is thought to be economically recoverable, assuming oil prices of $22-30/bbl. Estimates of technically recoverable oil on the NPR-A federal lands alone total 5.9-13.2 billion bbl, with a mean value of 9.3 billion bbl.
Unlike ANWR, industry has been allowed to lease portions of NPR-A for years. But producers showed only minor interest until the proven success of the Alpine oil field, located on the North Slope just outside NPR-A.
Portions of NPR-A were leased in 1999, and additional lease sales are expected beyond the one held in early June.
Public comments
Comments will be accepted online and by standard mail through Mar. 18. Public meetings will be held Feb. 12 in Fairbanks and Feb. 13 in Anchorage; additional meetings will be held in the following North Slope communities: Point Lay, Wainwright, Anaktuvuk Pass, Atqasuk, Nuiqsut, and Barrow. Times and locations will be announced in newspaper advertisements and on the website http://aurora.ak.blm.gov/ npra/.
This plan is the second of three land use plans being developed for NPR-A. The first plan, completed in 1998, covered 4.6 million acres of public land in the northeastern portion. A third planning effort, yet to begin, will cover the southern portion of the reserve.