On Monday, the White House gave its approval to ConocoPhillips’ Willow oil project on Alaska’s North Slope while also taking steps to lessen the project’s overall environmental impact.
Conoco’s intentions in Alaska were approved by the Biden administration, but two of the five proposed drill sites were rejected, and Conoco was required to give up its rights to leases covering 68,000 acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska that it had bought in the 1990s.
Yet, the corporation was optimistic about its choice to drill for oil in the state that is the furthest north in the country.
The chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips, Ryan Lance, declared that this was the best course of action for Alaska and the country.ConocoPhillips responded to a federal decision on the long-awaited project by stating that the U.S. Interior Department had stated that the plan complies with a national policy of energy security and subsistence operations.
Over the next three decades, new drilling in the North Slope might produce as much as 614 million barrels of oil, assisting Alaska in reversing a production loss related to field maturation that started in the 1980s.
Alaska’s production, which formerly averaged approximately 2 million barrels per day, is now closer to 440,000 bpd.
As recently as February, the White House made a hint that permission might soon arrive. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to concerns at the time by stating that energy policy attempts to strike a balance between combating climate change and locating the energy that the world needs.”The harmful effects of this decision cannot be overstated,” the group said. “This project has the potential to entirely undo the clean energy progress we’ve made, lock us into fossil fuel drilling for another 30 years and threaten the communities and wildlife who rely on these Alaskan landscapes.”
Given concerns over the slowing pace of production gains in U.S. shale, meanwhile, Conoco said Willow could produce as much as 180,000 barrels of oil per day and bring in as much as $17 billion in new revenue to the federal and state governments, as well as local communities.
Declaring victory, U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, said it’s time for Alaskans to make the most of the decision.
“Now, it’s on us here in Alaska to make sure that we make the best of this opportunity — that we use the revenues and jobs and economic opportunity from this project to make investments in the future of Alaska,” she said.
