Posted on 23-6-2004

BLM proposes more NPR-A leases

By SAM BISHOP News-Miner Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON--Federal officials want to offer oil leases in about 400,000 acres of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska that that were put off-limits six years ago to protect wildlife.
The Alaska head of an environmental group said the change would threaten caribou, but the federal Bureau of Land Management's state director said the proposed plan in many ways offers more protections to wildlife.

The expanded leasing in the NPR-A's northeast corner is part of the "preferred alternative" outlined by the BLM in a draft environmental impact statement released Wednesday. Comments on the draft will be taken through Aug. 2.

"We believe very strongly that we can appropriately explore and develop the area and protect the resource values in the new area that would be made available," said Henri Bisson, the Bureau of Land Management's state director in Anchorage.

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In 1998, the Clinton administration completed a plan for the NPR-A's northeast area that blocked oil leasing from Teshekpuk Lake north to the Beaufort Sea coastline--about 600,000 acres. The plan also blocked surface activity on another 240,000 acres along the southern edge of that acreage. That essentially reconfirmed an off-limits policy around Teshekpuk Lake that dated back to 1983, Bisson said.

The BLM proposed Wednesday to cut the area off-limits area down to a core 213,000 acres northeast of Teshekpuk Lake. The lake itself would be available for leasing, as would all the area just to the south where surface activity is blocked.

Bisson said BLM proposed revising the 1998 plan because new information indicated important oil resources in the area, he said. The current plan shuts off leasing on NPR-A's highest-potential area, he said.

The expanded leasing could boost potential future oil production to 2.1 billion barrels from the current 600 million barrels, at a price of $30 per barrel.

"That's a significant increase in the amount of oil," Bisson said.

While the BLM's proposal would allow more oil drilling in the area, Bisson said the agency wants to strengthen overall environmental protections.

"We believe we're putting more protection on the ground than actually exists under the current plan," he said.

For example, he said, the BLM wants a "no surface occupancy" rule around all lakes in the region. It also proposes the same rule for the Ublutuoch River, where people from Nuiqsut fish. And it wants consultation with local government on all oil and gas activities; currently such consultation is required for activity near just two creeks.

In addition, the BLM would place numerous stipulations and protective measures on any oil and gas activity, he said. Any drilling in Teshekpuk Lake would have to meet strict standards, including proof that an oil company could contain an oil spill in broken ice conditions, he said.

Eleanor Huffines, Alaska regional director for the Wilderness Society in Anchorage, objected to Bisson's claim that the proposal would actually increase protection.

"I think its incredibly disingenuous," she said.

First, the proposal would reduce the area around Teshekpuk Lake that is off-limits to oil and gas activity by 75 percent, she said. Studies have shown that calving caribou are significantly disturbed by oil and gas development, she said. Removing the ban on surface activity "is going to be a serious threat" to the population there, she said.

In addition, if the document follows the recently completed plan for the northwest NPR-A, the environmental stipulations are too weak and all can be waived for "economic reasons," she said. The BLM also allows permanent gravel roads, rather than ice roads, for not only development but also exploration, she said.

"A lot of the terminology is incredibly misleading," she said. Buffer zones along lakes and streams, for example, allow gravel mines and pipelines, she said.

Huffines said the Wilderness Society isn't opposed to drilling in the northeast NPR-A. But opening 96 percent of the area and weakening the environmental regulations isn't a balanced approach, she said.