State plans to approve air permit change for Pikka oil plant on North Slope

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said Friday it plans to approve a change to the air permit for the plant that processes oil from the Pikka field on the North Slope. Under the change, the plant's potential nitrogen oxides emissions would fall by about a fifth, and its potential emissions of volatile organic compounds would rise by about a third.

Oil Search (Alaska) LLC, which holds the permit for the Nanushuk Processing Facility, asked DEC to revise and rescind conditions in the plant's current permit. DEC's notice does not say which conditions would change or why.

Nitrogen oxides would drop from about 237 tons a year to about 187. Volatile organic compounds would rise from about 152 tons to about 200. Carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter would each rise by less than 9 tons, and greenhouse gases would rise by about 4%. Altogether, the plant's potential emissions of pollutants other than greenhouse gases would rise by about 13 tons, to about 846 tons a year.

DEC preliminarily approved the permit's last revision in December. That change did not alter the plant's potential emissions, according to the department's notice.

When DEC first proposed the plant's permit in 2022, Oil Search accepted limits meant to keep each major pollutant under 250 tons a year. Above that level, the plant would need a stricter federal permit review, according to DEC's 2022 analysis of the permit. All of the proposed figures stay under 250 tons. Carbon monoxide comes closest, at about 237.

The plant sits on a 17-acre gravel pad and can process roughly 80,000 barrels of oil a day, according to an EPA fact sheet. The Pikka Unit is about 52 miles west of Prudhoe Bay. Nuiqsut is about 12 miles southwest of the development.

Pikka began producing oil in May, Alaska News reported May 19.

DEC is taking public comments through Nov. 16. Then it will decide whether to issue the permit.