VOLUME 21 | ISSUE 32 | SUMMER 20254
northern part of the reserve, now renamed Utqiagvik, but like Umiat’s oil it was not a commercial-scale find. The gas was devel- oped, however, to provide energy for the nearby Naval Arctic Research Laboratory and a U.S. Air Force DEWline radar site. Eventually gas was supplied to the local In- upiat community. The Barrow gas field still supplies gas to Utqiagvik. But the government’s bad luck with drilling continued into the 1970s when the U.S. Geological Survey took over man- agement of exploration. It was only in the 1980s, when President Ronald Reagan de- cided to open the NPR-A to leasing by pri- vate companies, that modern technology and more efficient private management of exploration came to be used. Bad luck continued, however. ARCO Alaska drilled a costly dry hole south of Barrow. BP drilled unsuccessfully in the re- gion’s east-central region. Other companies tried their luck, like Total, a major compa- ny based in France, all unsuccessful. It was BP’s final exploration effort in Alaska, in fact. There was also an effort by Link Ener- gy, a small independent, to further explore the Navy’s early oil find at Umiat. Link was unsuccessful in finding enough oil at Umiat to merit development, but the company’s innovations helped the overall effort. One innovation was a long 99-mile snow road built by Link to Umiat from the Dalton Highway, a record distance, that demonstrated the use of snow compact- ing in areas where water was scarce for ice roads then commonly built for winter ex- ploration. These were expensive failures that dis- couraged industry. Success came finally when ConocoPhillips, with Anadarko Pe- troleum as a partner, developed the Alpine field in 1990 on state lands near the Colville River. After Alpine was built and produc- ing, the two companies began looking west across the Colville River at adjacent federal lands in the NPR-A. Exploration technology had advanced by then. A string of medium-sized discov- eries were made in what came to be known as CD-5, GMT-1 and GMT-2, which would be uneconomic on their own but could be developed because they could be reached by roads and pipelines from the Alpine field. Most significant, on-site oil process- ing plants were not needed at the three smaller projects because the raw crude oil could be transported to Alpine’s field plants
When he was in Alaska this summer, new In- terior Secretary Doug Burgum issued an order rescinding Haaland’s restrictive regulations for the NPR-A including the moving protected areas. Burgum’s order required a 60-day public comment period that expired Aug. 4. Follow- ing that, the new Secretary can make rescind- ing Haaland’s rules official.
for processing. Then Willow was found as Cono- coPhillips explored further west. By then, Anadarko had meanwhile sold its interest in the NPR-A leases, as well as Alpine, to ConocoPhillips. Willow is much larger than GMT-1 and GMT-2 but, more impor- tantly, it is too far from Alpine for the un- processed raw crude oil to be economically transported. A standalone processing plant
at Willow was needed. It is being built. And just as the Alpine field facilities enabled smaller finds nearby to be devel- oped, discoveries near Willow will become economic because of the proximity of the facilities at Willow. President Harding’s vision of the NPR-A as adding strategic energy reserves for the nation, not just the Navy, is becoming true. It has taken 100 years, however.
Photo Courtesy ConocoPhillips Alaska
lips’s Willow project but restrictive rules by the federal government made it difficult for explorers to adequately test them or to build pipelines if the finds were developed. Talisman Energy subsidiary FEX want- ed to do tests of its onshore finds made in 2005 and 2006 and Caelus Energy desired further tests of a potentially important offshore discovery at nearby Smith Bay in 2015. Caelus had found oil in shallow offshore waters on state-owned submerged land leases, but the federal government’s restric- tions in the NPR-A restricted access for the company for a pipeline corridor east to the Alpine field. The work by Caelus and FEX, and more recently ConocoPhillips in areas where Willow is being developed, confirmed that substantial oil deposits can be found in the petroleum reserve. The views haven’t al- ways been positive about NPR-A, however.
For years, even decades, the region was a kind of graveyard for exploration. No oil searches were made from 1923 until after World War II, which demonstrated the U.S. Navy’s need for secure oil supplies even more dramatically. The Navy itself managed exploration drilling in the 1950s with a U.S. Seabee battalion with Arctic experience. However, drilling technology at the time had limited capabilities and the ability to map prospec- tive underground targets was at an early stage. The result were many costly dry holes drilled over several years. There was some limited success, howev- er. A small oil deposit was found at Umiat, at the far southeast part of the reserve near the Colville River and at the boundary with state of Alaska lands. But the Umiat was not big enough for development, however. A small gas field also was found at Barrow, an Inupiat community in the far
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12
There was, of course, language about land protection, which is what Haaland and Jewell cited when imposing new re- strictions. The language on petroleum’s part took a back seat. It’s unclear just what new Secretary Burgum will do with the new rules but it’s likely the protected areas enlarged by Haa- land will shrink back what they were in 2020. This is important because Haaland’s protected areas covered an expanse of areas south and west of environmentally sensitive areas along the coast that had long been protected by Republican and Democratic presidents alike. What is important is that Haaland put off limits areas of prime prospectivity for oil and gas discoveries, geologists familiar with the region say. Discoveries have been made along the coast northwest of ConocoPhil-
14
15
www.AKRDC.org
ALASKA RESOURCE REVIEW SUMMER 2025
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online