A Legal Challenge Targets ConocoPhillips’ Winter Drilling Plans in Alaska
A coalition of Alaska Native communities and conservation organizations has filed a lawsuit aimed at halting ConocoPhillips’ ambitious winter exploration program on the North Slope. The action comes after the Trump administration gave the project the green light last month within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic (SILA) and partner groups contend that the approval process was flawed, arguing that it failed to adequately evaluate the environmental effects on the tundra and wildlife, including the caribou that local families rely on for food. They also criticize the decision-making timeline, saying a one-week window for public input was insufficient.
ConocoPhillips countered that the lawsuit could jeopardize investment and employment in Alaska. In a statement through spokesperson Dennis Nuss, the company asserted that the legal challenges from groups known for delaying exploration threaten hundreds of local jobs and add unnecessary risk to Alaska’s investment climate. Nuss added that the firm is confident in the strength of its plan and in the permits granted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and that they intend to complete work within the state’s constrained winter exploration season.
Earlier this year, the company revealed plans for a notably large winter program near the Willow discovery, which is currently under development. The agenda includes drilling four exploration wells near Willow and conducting seismic work across about 300 square miles to the south, potentially paving the way for future drilling. Additionally, ConocoPhillips intends to plug and abandon two older wells from prior years.
The project is slated to create hundreds of jobs and involve activity on ice airstrips, with substantial ground traffic from trucks, vans, and heavy equipment. The plan also calls for the construction of roughly 60 miles of ice roads and ice-based drilling foundations, plus about 10 miles of snow roads, as outlined in the administration’s environmental assessment.
Nauri Simmonds, executive director of Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, described the program as a broader assault on caribou and tundra, and as a continuation of efforts to push industrial activity into Indigenous homelands. Simmonds emphasized that protecting ancestral lands, maintaining community unity, and safeguarding the people’s right to live free from the harms of expansion are essential to their future.
The seismic portion of the project would rely on heavy vibroseis trucks that shake the ground with a large metal plate to map subterranean formations for oil prospects, according to the environmental assessment. The Bureau of Land Management’s report states that winter-related impacts on caribou would be temporary, given the transient nature of the work and the mitigation measures applied to both seismic testing and the exploration-and-plugging components.
Earthjustice filed the complaint on behalf of the involved groups, with the Center for Biological Diversity and The Wilderness Society as co-plaintiffs. The suit targets Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and other federal officials, and was submitted to the U.S. District Court in Anchorage.
The Interior Department has not yet responded to requests for comment regarding the case.
