Sept. 22 Deadline Set to Demand Hearing on Willow Drilling Rules

Alaskans have until 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 22 to force a public hearing on ConocoPhillips Alaska's request to set the drilling and injection rules for the proposed Willow Oil Pool. If no one files a written request by then, the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission may issue its order without a hearing.

The commission published notice Thursday over the names of Chair Tom McKay and Commissioners Jessie L. Chmielowski and Gregory C. Wilson.

ConocoPhillips Alaska, operator of the Bear Tooth Unit on the North Slope, filed two applications with the commission on Aug. 20. One seeks a conservation order establishing pool rules for the proposed Willow Oil Pool. The other seeks an area injection order. The dockets are CO-26-009 and AIO-26-011.

Pool rules are procedural. The notice says they are prescribed when a modification of a statewide regulation is needed to facilitate development of a pool, commonly to streamline permit-to-drill applications and to cut data collection where more data would not add to understanding of the project area's geology. In practice, the first application asks the state to change how drilling permits are handled at Willow and to reduce what the company measures and reports. The notice does not say which regulations would be modified.

The second application covers more than a single well. An area injection order approves injection for multiple wells over a wide area, rather than in one well or a limited part of a pool. ConocoPhillips seeks it for enhanced oil recovery and for temporary storage of fluids produced during well cleanup in the pre-drill period, before permanent production facilities are installed. That means authority to put fluids underground before the plant that would handle them is built.

ConocoPhillips has said Willow would initially be developed from three drill sites, with drilling from 2027 through 2028 and 126 wells total. The state's Fall 2025 production forecast put the project at more than 50 percent complete, with first oil expected in early 2029.

A hearing is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 4, conditional on a written request by the Sept. 22 deadline. Whether it proceeds can be learned by calling the commission after Sept. 24. Comments on both applications are due Oct. 6, or at the close of the hearing if one is held.

The notice does not contain all the information ConocoPhillips filed. Readers seeking the applications are directed to commission staff, since the filings were not available through the commission's online system, which blocks automated access. No opposing filing or testimony appears in the record for these two dockets.

The broader record on Willow is not silent, though. The Native Village and City of Nuiqsut, the community closest to the project, oppose it over consultation, health and subsistence concerns, according to public advocacy materials. Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, a regional Native organization, supports it as compatible with regional priorities and economic development.

The state notice arrives alongside a federal development. The Bureau of Land Management received a May 12 petition from the Alaska Oil and Gas Association seeking a development permit program in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, and published a May 19 notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement. On Sept. 8 it proposed a rule creating a streamlined track for approving NPR-A production sites, with a 60-day decision window for qualifying applications that prevails over shorter conflicting timeframes. A site must sit entirely within 25 miles of existing permanent infrastructure. The BLM said it chose that distance because five lessees would qualify, against three at a 15-mile limit. The criteria are provisional, to be refined by the unfinished impact statement, which will also carry the subsistence evaluation required by section 810 of ANILCA. Comments close Nov. 9.