North Slope Borough Assembly okays Oil Search Pikka master plan, rezoning

Kay Cashman

Petroleum News

The North Slope Borough Assembly met Dec. 3 and voted in favor of the Nanushuk Master Plan and rezoning request submitted Nov. 5 by Oil Search for its Pikka unit development west of the central North Slope.

The vote on the ordinance was 8 to 0, with one member abstaining.

Rezoning involved amending the official borough zoning map to change the area needed for the Pikka Nanushuk project from Conservation District to Resource Development District.

Included in the nine pages of requirements imposed by the North Slope Borough was establishing a fund that will be administered by the borough to diminish the impacts on area residents. Oil Search must pay $50,000 per year into the mitigation fund for the life of the Pikka project, starting with the beginning of construction.

Among numerous other requirements, the company also must establish provisions for several studies in the interest of wildlife and habitat protection and work on them with appropriate borough departments and officials.

Economic opportunities for borough and Native residents and local companies were also provided for in the ordinance.

The Nanushuk project will produce 120,000-130,000 barrels of oil per day at its peak, which is approximately one-fourth of the amount that currently flows through the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.

- KAY CASHMAN