On October 27, 2020, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an agency within the Department of the Interior (DOI), approved ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc.'s Willow Master Development Plan, a $4 billion oil project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A).[1] The NPR-A is a 23-million-acre piece of federally managed land that lies west of Alaska's Prudhoe Bay oil field and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). According to BLM, the project could produce up to 160,000 barrels of oil per day over its anticipated 30-year life which will equal approximately 590 million total barrels of oil. BLM estimates the project will generate up to 1,000 jobs during construction and 400 permanent positions to keep it operating. BLM’s decision allows construction of up to three drill sites and associated processing and support facilities. BLM says the decision also adopts modifications to the project based on input from tribal governments, cooperating agencies and various other stakeholders received during the comment period for the project’s environmental impact statement (EIS).

[1] https://www.blm.gov/press-release/trump-administration-approves-willow-master-development-plan