ConocoPhillips building in Anchorage on Monday, July 8, 2024. (Bill Roth / ADN)
ConocoPhillips plans to hunt for more oil this winter in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska where it’s already developing the giant Willow field, according to a statement from the company.
The company said it’s asking the Bureau of Land Management to approve the exploration plan, which includes four wells and seismic exploration during the winter when temporary ice roads are built to protect the tundra.
“We recognize the strategic importance of resource development in the state and are seeking authorization from the Bureau of Land Management to conduct exploration activities in the NPR-A during the winter season of 2025-2026,” the company said in a statement.
The 23-million-acre reserve has seen growing interest from oil companies over the last decade, but exploration activity has been limited to its eastern edges.
ConocoPhillips plans to drill four exploration wells in that area of the reserve, according to its statement.
The plans include three exploration wells in the area of its Bear Tooth Unit, plus one well within its Greater Mooses Tooth Unit.
The company also plans to conduct seismic activity south of the units, the statement said.
Rebecca Boys, a spokeswoman with ConocoPhillips, said she was not authorized to release the application.
Elizabeth Peace, a spokesperson for the Interior Department, said in a statement Thursday that officials with the Bureau of Land Management met with ConocoPhillips early this week to discuss the company’s exploration plans in the reserve.
The agency has received the applications for rights-of-way and seismic exploration, Peace said.
The agency has not received applications for permits to drill, but those are expected to arrive later this year, Peace said.
Peace said the proposals and application will be released on the agency’s website for environmental reviews “at a later date, once analysis is completed.”
ConocoPhillips’ plan for seismic exploration would hunt for deposits of oil and gas across 300 square miles, updating a 1980s-era study with modern data to provide more details on underground formations, according to Bloomberg, which initially reported the winter plans.
The exploration program, if approved by the Bureau of Land Management, would employ upwards of 900 workers, Boys said.
The plans mark a shift back to aggressive exploration in the reserve for ConocoPhillips.
The company in recent years has focused on developing the $7 billion Willow project, discovered about a decade ago.
The Biden administration approved Willow in 2023, amid strong opposition from environmental groups. The field is expected produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil daily, after first oil starts flowing in 2029.
But the Willow field’s potential — 600 million barrels over 30 years — represents only a fraction of the reserve’s estimated 8.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
Alaska is a long-term opportunity for ConocoPhillips, said Erec Isaacson, president of ConocoPhillips Alaska, in an interview with Bloomberg.
“As we look out in the future, that’s an investment we want to keep full,” Isaacson said.
ConocoPhillips, the top oil producer in the state, is a dominant lease-holder in the reserve with 156 leases.
But lease sales haven’t been held in the reserve since 2019, preventing oil companies from bidding for additional tracts where drilling could one day occur.
That will soon change.
ConocoPhillips’ announcement came just days after Republicans in Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, requiring the federal government over the next decade to hold at least five lease sales in the reserve, starting within one year. The law also calls for oil activity there to fall under rules established in the Trump administration, instead of more strict guidelines established in the Biden era.
President Donald Trump has also pushed aggressively for more drilling in Alaska. Top members of his administration, including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, visited the state’s North Slope oil patch in June to advocate for more oil and gas production in Alaska.
The Wilderness Society, a conservation group, said in a statement this week that the Biden-era rules should stand in order to protect Arctic communities, subsistence species and the climate.
“The proposed oil exploration around the Willow mega-project is reckless in the face of the climate crisis and ongoing concerns from the community of Nuiqsut (near Willow),” said Matt Jackson, senior manager in Alaska for The Wilderness Society.