BOEM gives more time for public input on Hilcorp’s Liberty project

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has extended the period for accepting public comment on Hilcorp’s Liberty project environmental impact statement (EIS) draft.

BOEM said on Thursday that the comment period would end at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, December 8.

The Bureau published a draft EIS analyzing the potential environmental impacts of Hilcorp’s Development and Production Plan (DPP) in August 2017.

BOEM is seeking public comment on the draft document, to help inform the preparation of the final environmental impact statement.

To remind, Hilcorp submitted the development plan for the Liberty project to the U.S. offshore oil and gas regulator September 2015. Hilcorp proposes to build a small artificial gravel island in the shallow federal waters of the Beaufort Sea, about 20 miles east of Prudhoe Bay.

To be located about five miles off the coast in Foggy Island Bay, the 36,400 square meter site would be similar to the oil and gas producing artificial Spy Island, Northstar Island, Endicott Island, and Oooguruk Island currently operating in the area’s state waters.

Hilcorp plans to install a “pipe-in-pipe” subsea pipeline to deliver oil to shore. Onshore, the pipeline would connect to the Badami pipeline which further connects to an existing oil and gas infrastructure at Prudhoe Bay.

The plan commits the company to several actions to minimize disruption to subsistence activities, including whaling, which play a vital role in the lives of Alaska Native communities along the Arctic coast.