ConocoPhillips asks Alaska regulators to set Willow drilling and injection rules

Editor's note: This story was updated Sept. 30 to correct the positions of Nuiqsut's city and tribal governments, which withdrew their January 2023 opposition letter in December 2023, add Kuukpik's position, describe the applications more precisely and remove figures that could not be verified.

ConocoPhillips asked the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in August to set rules for developing the Willow oil pool and to authorize underground injection there, according to the commission's public notice. The company filed both applications Aug. 20, under dockets CO-26-009 and AIO-26-011, as operator of the Bear Tooth Unit.

The first asks the commission to establish pool rules for Willow. The commission prescribes pool rules "when a modification of a statewide regulation is needed to facilitate development of the pool." The notice doesn't list which statewide requirements ConocoPhillips wants changed, and it says it doesn't contain everything the company filed.

The second asks for an area injection order, which approves injection across multiple wells over a wide area rather than one well at a time. The company is seeking it for enhanced oil recovery and for temporary storage of fluids produced during early well cleanup, before the project's permanent production facilities are installed and commissioned, according to the notice.

The federal government approved a scaled-back version of Willow in March 2023, cutting ConocoPhillips' proposal from five drill sites to three. ConocoPhillips has said it expects first oil in early 2029.

Nuiqsut, the community closest to Willow, has institutions whose formal positions on the project have changed over time. The City of Nuiqsut and the Native Village of Nuiqsut raised consultation, health and subsistence concerns in a January 2023 letter. In December 2023, both withdrew their support for that letter. The city's resolution said it intended to work with ConocoPhillips and regulators to enforce the project's conditions, and the tribe's said it did not oppose Willow as long as subsistence resources were protected. Kuukpik Corp., Nuiqsut's village corporation, said it could support Willow if protections were put in place for the Teshekpuk Lake Caribou Herd, in a September 2024 letter. Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, a regional organization, supported the federal approval of Willow in 2023. Those positions concern Willow generally, not the two applications now before the state.

The deadline to request a hearing was 4:30 pm Sept. 22. Written comments are due by 4:30 pm Oct. 6, or by the end of the hearing if one is held. The commission's events calendar lists a hearing on the applications for 10 am Nov. 4.