Hilcorp Alaska LLC has received conditional development and production approval from the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for the Liberty oil and natural gas project offshore Alaska (OGJ Online, Aug. 17, 2017).
If the company proceeds, the production facility would be the first in federal water off Alaska.
Hilcorp plans to build a 9-acre artificial island in 19 ft of water 20 miles east of Prudhoe Bay and 5 miles off the coast.
The project would be similar to artificial islands now producing oil and gas in state waters: Spy Island, Northstar Island, Endicott Island, and Oooguruk Island.
Approval conditions include restricted drilling into the productive reservoir, which may occur only during times of solid ice; seasonal restrictions on activities and vessel traffic to reduce potential disturbance to Cross Island subsistence whaling; and procurement of all required permits from other state and federal agencies.
Hilcorp proposes to drill five to eight production wells, four to six wells for injection of water or gas, and as many as two disposal wells.
It expects the Liberty development to produce as much as 65,000 b/d of oil and 120 MMscfd of natural gas.
The project includes a pipe-in-pipe pipeline with diameters of 16-in. and 12-in., of which 5.6 miles is subsea and 1.5 miles is onshore to link with an existing pipeline.
