HOUSTON, Texas — A decision from the Interior Department that blocks or further shrinks ConocoPhillips's Willow project in Alaska would thwart President Joe Biden's demand for more production from Big Oil, the company's CEO said Tuesday.
Interior's Bureau of Land Management is set to decide the fate of Willow, a large oil project in northern Alaska, as soon as this week. Environmental groups are lobbying the administration to deny ConocoPhillips's plan to expand production in the North Slope, and recent reporting indicated the White House is considering intervening and shrinking the project or putting limits on drilling.
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The department has also said it has "substantial concerns" with the project.
Ryan Lance, chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips, said the company's plans for developing Willow mesh with Biden's repeated calls targeted specifically at large integrated energy companies for more oil production to bring down prices.
"It's exactly what this administration has been asking our industry to do, lean in, produce more [oil]," Lance said Tuesday during remarks at CERAWeek by S&P Global, an annual industry conference in Houston.
ConocoPhillips's master development plan for Willow seeks to develop five drill pads in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, along with supporting road and bridge infrastructure, to support the ultimate production of 180,000 barrels of oil per day over the course of three decades.
The company, which secured its initial leases in the NPR-A in the late 1990s, estimated the project as pitched would produce up to some 629 million total barrels of oil over 30 years.
BLM finalized its environmental impact statement assessing the project and its impacts in February, in which it identified a preferred alternative that would provide three drill pads, with potential for a fourth down the road.
ConocoPhillips has said three pads would be acceptable but warned that a further reduction would make the project nonviable and effectively kill it.
Biden administration officials and many Democrats in Congress have criticized oil and gas companies over the last year for not producing more energy in response to high prices. They've also criticized federal lessees for not exploiting more of their active oil and gas leases and drilling permits.
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), who has been lobbying for the project in its final weeks of review, said a final decision that denies the project or provides less than the three drilling pads offered in BLM's preferred alternative would deprive the region's Alaska Natives, who largely support the project, of an economic windfall.
"There's this narrative within the administration, from the secretary of energy and others, 'Hey, the only reason we're not producing more is recalcitrant oil and gas producers,'" Sullivan said on the sidelines of the conference in Houston on Monday. "Well, that's obviously not the case here."
Environmental advocates and some Democratic lawmakers have implored the Biden administration to deny the project or else lock in more fossil fuel production and greenhouse gas emissions. That would tarnish Biden's environmental legacy and transgress his climate change agenda, the groups have argued.
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The Biden administration has been firm, however, that it desires more oil production now to serve demand while it tries to speed up electrification in transportation and other sectors.
“We do want to eventually — we want to see a reduction in demand for oil, but we can't afford that right now,” said Amos Hochstein, a top energy diplomat at the Start Department and adviser to Biden.