ConocoPhillips to move forward with Willow project - Alaska's News Source

ConocoPhillips to move forward with Willow project

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - ConocoPhillips announced Friday the company’s Final Investment Decision to move forward with constructing a massive oil development project, known as the Willow Project, following the U.S. Department of the Interior’s previous decision.

“We are excited to reach this significant milestone,” Ryan Lance, ConocoPhillips Chairman and CEO said in a statement. “With this project authorization, we’ve begun winter construction and Alaskans have started to receive the benefits from responsible energy development.”

Citing the Bureau of Land Management in their news release, the company said the project could generate $8 billion to $17 billion in new revenue for the state, federal federal government, and Alaska Native communities.

Alaska’s Congressional Delegation supports the project and welcomed President Biden Administration’s approval in March, which opened up three drilling sites for ConocoPhillips after a separate decision to protect nearly 16 million acres of state land from development. Several environmental groups, in Alaska and nationwide, including some Alaska Native leaders, have voiced concerns about the project, and fought against the approval. There have also been Alaska Native leaders who have backed the major oil project.

“We are disappointed that the court has declined to put a halt to blasting and construction pending a ruling on the Willow project as a whole,” said Karlin Itchoak, Alaska senior regional director for The Wilderness Society. “By building roads and pipelines, ConocoPhillips is doing irreparable harm to lands that should be protected. This destructive activity should be stopped until legal challenges of the Willow project have worked their way through the courts.”

In their Friday news release, the company also said the project went through five years of regulatory and environmental review.

“Our employees and the contractor community have dedicated years to designing a project that will provide reliable energy while adhering to the highest environmental standards,” ConocoPhillips Chairman and CEO Ryan Lance added.

ConocoPhillips says the Finial Investment Decision approves the project and funds construction needed to reach the first oil. The company has said the Willow Project could create more than 2,500 construction jobs and about 300 long-term jobs. When complete, the company estimates the Willow Project will produce 600 million barrels of oil across the project’s lifetime.

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