Lawsuit seeks to stop ConocoPhillips’ big winter oil exploration plans in Alaska

An Alaska Native group and conservation groups filed a lawsuit Thursday to stop ConocoPhillips’ large winter exploration plans on the North Slope.

The Trump administration approved the plan last month in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic and other groups argue in the lawsuit that approval was done illegally, without conducting proper analysis to protect the tundra and wildlife such as caribou that families hunt for food, according to a prepared statement. They also say a one-week public input period was inadequately short.

ConocoPhillips said in a prepared statement that the lawsuit could hurt investment and jobs in Alaska.

“These actions by the same groups that have historically used legal maneuvers to delay exploration and development in the Petroleum Reserve jeopardize hundreds of local jobs and adds unnecessary risk to investment in Alaska,” the oil company said in a statement provided by spokesperson Dennis Nuss.

“We remain confident in the robustness of our plan and BLM’s permits and look forward to completing our work within Alaska’s limited winter exploration season,” Nuss said.

The oil company earlier this year announced plans this winter to conduct an unusually large exploration program near its giant Willow discovery that is currently under development.

Seeking new prospects, it plans to drill four exploration wells near Willow and conduct seismic exploration across 300 square miles south of Willow that could lead to future drilling. The company also plans to plug and seal two old wells drilled in previous years.

The project is expected to employ several hundred workers, with planes landing on ice airstrips, and an array of trucks, vans and heavy equipment making thousands of trips. Some 60 miles of ice roads and ice foundations for drilling will also be built, plus 10 miles of snow roads, according to the company’s plans in the administration’s environmental assessment.

“ConocoPhillips’ exploration program is not only an assault on caribou and tundra — it is another chapter in the enfoldment of our people into systems designed to fracture us from within,” said Nauri Simmonds, executive director of Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic.

“Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic stands against this approval because our future depends on protecting our homelands, our unity, and our right to live free from the harms of industrial expansion,” Simmonds said in a prepared statement.

Heavy vibroseis trucks that vibrate the ground with a large metal plate will conduct the seismic tests to assess underground formations for potential oil, the environmental assessment says.

The environmental report, conducted by the Bureau of Land Management, says impacts to the caribou will be short-lived.

“The impacts to caribou from winter activities would be expected to be temporary due to the transient nature and applied mitigation of the seismic portion of the project across the landscape,” the report says. “Additionally, applied mitigation for the exploration and plugging portions of the project would also reduce impacts.”

The complaint was filed by Earthjustice on behalf of the groups, which also consist of the Center for Biological Diversity and The Wilderness Society.

The groups are suing Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and other federal officials.

The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage.

The Interior Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.