Commodities and Futures News

Biden administration to approve major oil project in Alaska -source

2023.03.13 03:07


© Reuters. U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 10, 2023. REUTERS/Sarah Silbiger

By Nichola Groom and Maria Caspani

(Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration will approve a major and controversial oil drilling project in Alaska on Monday, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The decision to move ahead with the project by authorizing three drill sites in northwestern Alaska would come a day after Biden announced sweeping curbs on oil and gas leasing to protect up to 16 million acres of water and land in the region.

The Willow project, led by energy giant ConocoPhillips (NYSE:), would be located inside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a 23 million-acre (93 million-hectare) area on the state’s North Slope that is the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the United States.

The project, announced in January 2017, is expected to produce about 600 million barrels of oil equivalent over its life, peaking at 180,000 barrels of oil per day, ConocoPhillips says on its website.

Earlier on Sunday, the U.S. Interior Department unveiled actions to make nearly 3 million acres of the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean “indefinitely off limits” for oil and gas leasing, building on an Obama-era ban and effectively closing off U.S. Arctic waters to oil exploration.

In addition to the drilling ban, the government will put forward new protections for more than 13 million acres of “ecologically senitive” Special Areas within Alaska’s petroleum reserve, the administration said in a statement on Sunday.

The area includes the Teshekpuk Lake, Utukok Uplands, Colville River, Kasegaluk Lagoon and Peard Bay Special Areas.

The new moves come as Biden tries to balance his goals of decarbonizing the U.S. economy and preserving pristine wilderness with calls to increase domestic fuel supply to keep prices low.

Willow has support from the oil and gas industry and state officials eager for jobs, but is fiercely opposed by environmental groups who want to move rapidly away from fossil fuels to combat climate change.

An environmental group said the new protections announced on Sunday did not go far enough and the government should stop oil and gas developments to help fight climate change.

“Protecting one area of the Arctic so you can destroy another doesn’t make sense, and it won’t help the people and wildlife who will be upended by the Willow project,” said Kristen Monsell, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Source link

Related Articles

Back to top button
bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 98,141.29 4.21%
ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) $ 3,475.94 2.18%
tether
Tether (USDT) $ 0.999561 0.08%
xrp
XRP (XRP) $ 2.28 1.86%
bnb
BNB (BNB) $ 706.71 3.34%
solana
Solana (SOL) $ 195.89 2.29%
dogecoin
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.33084 3.20%
usd-coin
USDC (USDC) $ 1.00 0.03%
staked-ether
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 3,475.57 2.35%
cardano
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.912002 1.58%
tron
TRON (TRX) $ 0.256148 1.53%
avalanche-2
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 40.73 4.06%
chainlink
Chainlink (LINK) $ 24.56 2.56%
the-open-network
Toncoin (TON) $ 5.95 5.31%
wrapped-steth
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 4,132.22 2.22%
shiba-inu
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000023 2.76%
sui
Sui (SUI) $ 4.48 0.49%
wrapped-bitcoin
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 97,890.23 4.23%
hedera-hashgraph
Hedera (HBAR) $ 0.312726 1.95%
stellar
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.384172 3.29%
polkadot
Polkadot (DOT) $ 7.42 2.09%
weth
WETH (WETH) $ 3,474.56 2.15%
hyperliquid
Hyperliquid (HYPE) $ 28.19 0.43%
bitcoin-cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 465.43 0.45%
leo-token
LEO Token (LEO) $ 9.51 0.96%
uniswap
Uniswap (UNI) $ 13.90 0.20%
litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) $ 108.73 1.62%
bitget-token
Bitget Token (BGB) $ 5.60 14.17%
pepe
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000019 2.03%
wrapped-eeth
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 3,668.37 2.24%
near
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 5.49 0.73%
ethena-usde
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 0.999549 0.02%
aave
Aave (AAVE) $ 374.48 0.07%
internet-computer
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 11.29 4.83%
usds
USDS (USDS) $ 1.00 0.10%
aptos
Aptos (APT) $ 9.59 1.91%
polygon-ecosystem-token
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.516441 2.56%
crypto-com-chain
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.158534 1.58%
vechain
VeChain (VET) $ 0.052204 6.03%
mantle
Mantle (MNT) $ 1.26 5.36%
ethereum-classic
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 27.56 1.33%
render-token
Render (RENDER) $ 7.56 1.57%
bittensor
Bittensor (TAO) $ 514.75 4.72%
monero
Monero (XMR) $ 196.35 4.93%
whitebit
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 24.89 2.10%
mantra-dao
MANTRA (OM) $ 3.77 0.33%
fetch-ai
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 1.36 1.10%
dai
Dai (DAI) $ 1.00 0.04%
arbitrum
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.800479 0.01%
filecoin
Filecoin (FIL) $ 5.34 3.02%