Despite receiving key support from the Army Corp. of Engineers last week, the Greater Moose’s Tooth Unit 1 oil exploration project is still on hold.
During the Industry Outlook Forum DNR Deputy Commissioner Ed Fogels defined the project.
Fogels: “The Greater Moose’s Tooth Project and the NPRA is a terrible important project to Alaska, potentially 30,000 barrels a day of oil, nice warm oil into our pipeline. We’ve been working closely with the federal agencies, most important The Bureau of Land Management who is the land owner and The Army Corp. of Engineers who has to do the wetland permitting.”
The development plan Conoco Phillips submitted to the Army Corp of Engineers was approved and included an eight mile access road with other infrastructure near the village of Nuiqsut (NOAK-sit) which is in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska or NPRA.
The Bureau of Land Management owns the land however and is not satisfied with the current plan, preferring a more costly plan known as Alternative B. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the tribal government of Nuiqsut also support Alternative B.
Nuiqsut is a Inupiat village of 450 which relies on subsistence. The more costly Alternative B would not allow for the road or pipeline to be built in a three mile proximity to Fish Creek, an important hunting and fishing area for the village.