The Trump administration plans to streamline the permitting process for oil developments inside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska as it pushes to accelerate crude production in the US Arctic.
The Interior Department initiative aims to establish a new permit framework for building and operating oil production sites and related infrastructure within the reserve. Under the approach, qualifying projects could be more swiftly analyzed and authorized, potentially in just 30 days.
The effort could benefit ConocoPhillips, Santos Ltd., Repsol SA and other companies that hold leases within the reserve by expediting government reviews of projects like ConocoPhillips’ Willow development that drew strong opposition from climate activists.
The proposed changes are apt to stoke concern among environmentalists who have battled Arctic oil development that they say imperils a region rich in wildlife while also prolonging the world’s reliance on planet-warming fossil fuels.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the effort builds on what industry and federal regulators have already learned about responsible oil development in the region.
“We know we can speed up permitting a common sense way,” Burgum said in an interview.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.Eric Lee/Photographer: Eric Lee/BloombergBurgum is announcing the plan Friday near ConocoPhillips’ Willow operations in the petroleum reserve, during a visit to oil and mining sites in Alaska.
The Trump administration has amplified its calls for US oil companies to ramp up production during the war in Iran as about 20% of the world’s supply is trapped in the Persian Gulf.
President Donald Trump has celebrated surging US crude exports during the conflict, as American oil companies help fill the global supply gap. Trump has described tankers steaming toward Louisiana, Texas and Alaska to load American oil, even raising the prospect of China buying more US barrels during an interview with Fox News on the eve of his summit in Beijing.
The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, about 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of Anchorage, is a sprawling 23 million acres (9.3 million hectares) or about the size of the State of Indiana.
The stretch of flat tundra was first set aside for oil and gas production for the Navy a century ago. It has drawn new interest following a string of discoveries that highlight its potential crude reserves, with the US government estimating it contains some 8.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
ExxonMobil Corp. Shell Plc, Armstrong Oil & Gas and other oil companies bid some $164 million on leases in the reserve during a record-setting government auction in March.
The proposed permitting initiative hinges on a bid by the Interior Department to conduct a broad environmental study of a typical development in the reserve that assesses the impacts of potential wells, gravel roads, processing units and other facilities customarily at the sites.
A ConocoPhillips test well in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska in 2005.JIM WILSON/NYTThat analysis is intended to set the stage for a future rule making setting criteria for proposed oil and gas production sites that could qualify for expedited reviews building off the broader environmental scrutiny.
Interior’s Bureau of Land Management is kicking off the effort with the launch of that environmental impact statement, giving 45 days for the public comment to weigh in on the scope of that study.
The initiative builds on other Trump administration work to expand oil development in the reserve – and expedite project reviews under a decades old federal environmental law.
Conservationists have warned that changes risk short-circuiting necessary scrutiny of energy projects that can yield oil and gas for decades to come, undermining evaluations of their potential impacts on the environment, wildlife and indigenous peoples who subsist off the land.