Willow Oil Field (Alaska, United States)

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Willow Oil Field is an in development oil field in Alaska, United States.

Project Details

Main Data

Table 1: Field-level project details for Willow Oil Field

*Final Investment Decision

Unit name	Status	Operator	Owner	Discovery year	FID* year	Production start year
Willow	In development	ConocoPhillips Alaska	ConocoPhillips Alaska (100.0%)	2016	2023	2029 (expected)

Production and Reserves

Table 2: Reserves of Willow Oil Field

million bbl = million barrels of oil

Fuel Description	Reserve Classification	Quantity	Units	Data Year	Source
oil	recoverable reserves	576	million bbl	2023

Table 3: Production from Willow Oil Field

million bbl/y = million barrels of oil per year

Category	Fuel Description	Quantity	Units	Data Year	Source
production design capacity	oil	65.7	million bbl/y	2029

Location

Table 4: field-level location details for Willow Oil Field

Concession/Block	Basin	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Bear Tooth Unit	North Slope	Alaska, United States	70.2256, -152.129 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the field:

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Background

ConocoPhillips acquired the Willow-Area leases in 1999.

In 2016, ConocoPhillips discovered a "significant pay" in the northeast portion of the Alaskan National Petroleum Reserve (NPR-A). This was named the Willow discovery. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) began drafting the projects drafting Environmental Impact Statement in 2018 and published the first draft of the document in August 2019. BLM issued the Willow Master Development Plan Record of Decision in October 2020.

A court challenge on the federal permits for the Willow project made its way to the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska. In August 2021, the court found that the environmental review contained inaccurate and inadequate analysis of climate impacts. The lawsuit brought by environmental groups pushed the Biden administration to withhold approval from two of five drill sites. The Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, representing interests of the Arctic Slope Iñupiat supported the project proposal in 2021 stating: Willow "will provide not only much-needed jobs for our people, but also tax revenue to support our schools, health clinics and other infrastructure and public services. We are pleased to see that this project has met the rigorous NEPA standards and look forward to our continued partnership with ConocoPhillips to move this project forward."

In January 2023, President Joe Biden's administration approved the the Willow project. Upon the announcement, ConocoPhillips announced it had "completed extensive preparations with key contractors and expects to immediately initiate gravel road construction activities."

As of March 2023, the project is estimated to cost roughly $7 billion.

Opposition

According to a March 2023 article in the Guardian, Willow "has drawn fierce opposition from environmentalists and some Alaska Native communities, who say it will speed up the climate breakdown and undermine food security." The Guardian pointed out that the project may "ironically, involve refreezing the rapidly thawing Arctic permafrost to stabilize drilling equipment, would create one of the largest “carbon bombs” on US soil." According to the article, over a million letters in opposition to the project have been sent to the White House, the "#stopwillow campaign" went viral on TikTok and other social media. As of March 14, 2023 the petition to tell the Biden Administration and ConocoPhillips to "SAY NO TO THE WILLOW PROJECT!" had garnered 3.4 million signatures.

In a separate article for the Guardian, an environmental reporter wrote that the project would "enable the extraction of oil long beyond the time scientists say that wealthy countries should have kicked the habit, in order to avoid disastrous global heating" and pointed out despite candidate Joe Biden's promise of “no more drilling on federal lands, period”, President Joe Biden's approval of Willow is consistent with a presidency which has ushered in a sort of "a sort of boom" in oil and gas production.

Evergreen Action stated “approving the Willow Project is an unacceptable departure from President Biden’s promises to the American people on climate and environmental justice. After all that this administration has done to advance climate action and environmental justice, it is heartbreaking to see a decision that we know will poison Arctic communities and lock in decades of climate pollution we simply cannot afford." The Sunrise Movement said the Willow decision “abandons millions of young people.” Former Vice President Al Gore has said that the Willow project "is recklessly irresponsible.” A letter signed by over 20 members of Congress called on the Biden administration to reject the Willow project as the Willow MDP would pose a significant threat to U.S. progress on climate issues."

Native community leaders sent a letter to the Interior Department on March 4, 2023 to "emphasize the problems with the consultation process and the mitigation measures identified in the Willow final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS), and to explain why the administration must deny any version of the proposed project."

On March 14, 2023, Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, Alaska Wilderness League, Environment America, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Sierra Club, and The Wilderness Society filed a complaint stating that the project's approval "violates the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act (NPRPA), the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA)".

On March 15, 2023, the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, and Natural Resources Defense Council filed a complaint that the project "violates NEPA and the National Petroleum Reserves Production Act" and parts of the approval process were "unlawful, because they fail to consider the impact of carbon emissions on threatened species."

Carbon Emissions

According to the Willow project environmental impact statement, total greenhouse gas emissions over the project's 30 year duration amount to "278,036 Mt of gross CO2e." The Center for American Progress found even 260 MtCo2e (earlier estimate) would "dwarf the greenhouse gas emissions avoided by fulfilling President Joe Biden’s 2030 commitments on renewables on public lands and waters" -- around 129 MtCo2e.

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of oil and gas extraction sites, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Oil and Gas Extraction Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.