PURPOSE: The applicant, Oil search, stated purpose is to safely produce commercial quantities of liquid hydrocarbons in OSA’s State of Alaska and Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) oil and gas leasehold by operating from a site east of the Colville River Delta; to process hydrocarbons on or near the drill sites; and to transport sales quality oil through a new export pipeline to the Kuparuk sales oil pipeline, and then to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Service (TAPS). A secondary purpose of the Project is to further delineate geological features and hydrocarbon accumulations in OSA's leasehold utilizing the proposed infrastructure.
LOCATION: The Project would be located in the North Slope Borough (NSB) in the Pikka Unit between Kuparuk and the Colville River Unit development (Alpine), east of the Colville River, approximately 6.5 miles northwest of the Village of Nuiqsut.
PERMIT HISTORY: In June 15, 2015 the applicant originally proposed to impact 288 acres of waters of the United States (U.S.), including wetlands (WOUS). In July 2017, the applicant submitted a revised permit application modifying the width of the access road from 38 to 35 feet wide. This change resulted in a reduction of impacts to WOUS of 16.4 acres to 271.6 acres. This reduction was not analyzed in the DEIS due to the timing of receipt of these changes, although this change was describe in the original Public Notice for the permit in September 2017.
In response to comments on the DEIS, the applicant (OSA) further modified their proposal as described above. These changes in Project description decreased the overall Project footprint by another 10.3 acres of WOUS to 261.3 acres. This is a 27 acre reduction in impacts to WOUS from the original application dated June 15, 2015. A difference in acreages from the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and this PN is due to the method in which impacts were calculated. To determine total impacts to WOUS for the proposed project the applicant used more detailed methods than those necessary for the FEIS.
This is the second Public Notice period for the Nanushuk Development Project permit application. It includes the final project proposal and a new Compensatory Mitigation Plan.
All comments should reach this office no later than the expiration date of this Public Notice to become part of the record and be considered in the decision. Comments on the Public Notice for this permit can be submitted via the U.S. Postal Service to: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, CEPOA-RD, Ms. Ellen Lyons, 2175 University Avenue, Suite 201E, Alaska 99709-4927 or also via email at: Ellen.H.Lyons@usace.army.mil. We request that you include with your comments: (1) Your name, address, and affiliation (if any); (2) Be as specific as possible when stating your concern or comment; (3) Provide any background documents to support your comments, as necessary.
POA-2015-25, Nanushuk Application_PN
POA-2015-25, Permit Application
POA-2015-25, Figure Set
POA-2015-25, Applicant Proposed Mitigation Statement