The Willow project is an oil drilling project by ConocoPhillips located on the plain of the North Slope of Alaska in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. The project was originally to construct and operate up to five drill pads for a total of 250 oil wells. Associated infrastructure includes access and infield roads, airstrips, pipelines, a gravel mine and a temporary island to facilitate module delivery via sealift barges on permafrost and between waters managed by the state of Alaska.
Oil was discovered in the Willow prospect area west of Alpine, Alaska, in 2016, and in October 2020, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approved ConocoPhillips' Willow development project in its Record of Decision. After a court challenge in 2021, the BLM issued its final supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) in February 2023.
Alaskan lawmakers from both sides, as well as the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, have supported the Willow project. On March 13, 2023, the Biden administration approved the project.
Environmentalist organization Earthjustice filed a lawsuit on March 14, 2023, on behalf of conservation groups to stop the Willow project, saying that the approval of a new carbon pollution source contradicts President Joe Biden's promises to slash greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and transition the United States to clean energy.
The project could produce up to 750 million barrels of oil and 287 million tons of carbon emissions plus other greenhouse gases over 30 years, and could adversely impact Arctic wildlife and Native American communities. The Willow project would damage the complex local tundra ecosystem and, according to an older government estimate, release the same amount of greenhouse gasses annually as half a million homes.
Geography
The Willow project is located on the plain of the North Slope of Alaska, within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, in a part called the Bear Tooth Unit West of Alpine, Alaska on native lands. It is located on Arctic coastal tundra less than from the Arctic Ocean and entirely on the arctic coastal plain, as depicted in Figure 3.9.2 of the final supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS). This land consists of permafrost tundra, 94% of which is wetlands and 5% freshwater.
Expected oil extraction
Over its anticipated 30-year life, the Willow project could produce 200,000 barrels of oil per day, producing up to 600 million barrels of oil in total. According to estimates by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Willow could generate between $8 and $17 billion in revenue. The BLM's environmental impact statement found it would result in 287 million tons of carbon emissions plus other greenhouse gases.
In June 2021, officials at ConocoPhillips stated it had, "identified up to 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent of nearby prospects and leads with similar characteristics that could leverage the Willow infrastructure...[Willow] unlocks the West".
History
In 1999, ConocoPhillips acquired the first Willow-area leases in the northeast portion of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska called the Bear Tooth Unit.
In 2016, the final year of the Obama administration, ConocoPhillips drilled two oil exploration wells, which encountered "significant pay". It named this discovery Willow. In 2018, the second year of the Trump administration, it appraised the greater Willow area and discovered three additional oil prospects.
In May 2018, ConocoPhillips officially requested permission to develop the Willow prospect from the BLM, to construct and operate five drill pads with 50 oil wells each for a total of 250 oil wells including access and infield roads, airstrips, pipelines, a gravel mine and a temporary island to facilitate module delivery via sealift barges.
In August 2019, after a 44-day public scoping period and having consulted with 13 tribal entities and Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act corporations, the BLM published a draft master development plan.