Company seeks to build island off Alaska for Arctic drilling
Source: Associated Press
Dan Joling, Associated Press
Updated 3:06 pm, Thursday, October 19, 2017
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — America within a few years could be extracting oil from federal waters in the Arctic Ocean, but it won't be from a remote drilling platform.
Federal regulators are taking comments on a draft environmental statement for the Liberty Project, a proposal by a subsidiary of Houston-based Hilcorp to create an artificial gravel island that would hold production wells, a processing facility and the start of an undersea pipeline carrying oil to shore and connections to the trans-Alaska pipeline.
The drilling would be the first in federal Arctic waters since Royal Dutch Shell, amid protest both in the United States and abroad, in 2015 sent down an exploratory well in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast.
Supporters like its chances. A final decision is in the hands of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. President Barak Obama in December signed an executive order designating the bulk of U.S. Arctic Ocean waters indefinitely off-limits to future oil and gas leasing. But President Donald in April signed another order aimed at reversing the policy. Zinke said Trump's actions would put the country on track for energy independence.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/Oil-company-proposes-Arctic-drilling-from-12289677.php
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