ConocoPhillips largest exploration campaign since 2020!!
ConocoPhillips files with regulators for more oil exploration in Alaskan Arctic
Seeking Alpha, April 22, 2026
ConocoPhillips is pushing to explore for more oil near its Willow project in Alaska, filing applications Monday with U.S. regulators asking to drill four new test wells and undertake seismic studies to search for additional oil in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, in what would be the company’s largest proposed exploration campaign since 2020, Bloomberg reported Monday.
Alaska offers Conoco an opportunity to leverage an infrastructure network that includes both decades-old processing facilities and Willow, which is still under construction and already projected to produce 600M barrels over 30 years.
“As we look out in the future, that’s an investment we want to keep full,” and is a matter of “going out and exploring now to ensure that we continue to have this pipeline of opportunities that we’re looking at to backfill our infrastructure in the future,” Erec Isaacson, president of ConocoPhillips Alaska, told Bloomberg in an interview.
The proposed wells include three near ConocoPhillips’ Bear Tooth Unit site, with one 11 miles from Willow, and a fourth well would be drilled further east in the company’s Greater Mooses Tooth Unit site.
At the same time, ConocoPhillips wants to conduct high-quality three-dimensional seismic surveys across 300 square miles to the south, mapping underground formations to identify pockets of oil and gas, updating antiquated two-dimensional studies conducted in the 1980s.
ConocoPhillips did not provide a cost estimate for the proposed exploration program, but Bloomberg said it overlaps with the company’s pattern of devoting $1B-$1.2B annually in the state for new capital development, wells and drilling pads.
News of the application comes as Ambler prepares to start geotechnical and exploration drilling next month. Its fully financed field campaign, part of a $35 million annual budget, is expected to include 40 to 45 drill holes over at least 5,650 meters aimed at advancing final engineering plans for the development of a mine.
Trilogy to seek FAST-41 inclusion for Alaska copper project
Frederic Tomesco, Mining.Com, April 22, 2026
Trilogy Metals (TSX: TMQ; NYSE-A: TMQ) said its Ambler Metals joint venture will seek inclusion under the FAST-41 speedy permits program for its Arctic copper-zinc-lead-gold-silver project in Alaska after kicking off the federal approvals process.
Ambler has filed an application for a Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 404 permit with the US Army Corps of Engineers, a move that initiates federal permitting for mine development and operations at Arctic, Trilogy said late Tuesday in a statement. CWA 404 is the only critical permit required by the Federal government, while all other key permits are issued at the state and local levels.
Located in northwestern Alaska’s Ambler mining district, Arctic ranks among the highest-grade undeveloped polymetallic deposits on earth. It’s one of two key assets, along with the Bornite copper deposit, that Ambler is advancing as part of a long-term strategy to develop a new US domestic source of critical minerals.
“While the commencement of federal permitting is largely expected by the market, we believe it represents a meaningful milestone for the Arctic project,” TD Cowen Securities analyst Craig Hutchison said Wednesday in a note. I
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright gave a ringing endorsement for Alaska LNG Tuesday, a mega project that he acknowledged has a mega challenge.
Energy secretary says Alaska LNG is his No. 1 infrastructure priority
Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media, April 21, 2206
Wright, testifying at a Senate hearing, said the project to build a pipeline and an export terminal for North Slope natural gas is his No. 1 infrastructure priority.
“Not a week goes by that I don’t have multiple meetings or dialogues about it,” he said, in response to Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s questions.
But, he said, it’s “tricky” to finance construction of the 800-mile pipeline.
“And you have to build the pipeline first,” he said. “The LNG export terminal is not hard to finance, but we can’t finance that without financing the pipeline. So, we are just working every avenue we can.”
Officials from Alaska government and industry have tried for years to figure out how to bring North Slope gas to market. Natural gas is a byproduct of oil extraction and has been pumped back into the ground. In 2020, the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. estimated the cost of the project to be $38.7. Other estimates run to nearly double that figure, raising doubts that it will ever make economic sense.
Wright, though, said Alaska LNG could solve a natural gas shortfall in Alaska cities and help U.S. allies in Asia who usually rely on tankers that have to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
Murkowski raised a selling point for the Alaska project: “No choke point.”
Wright agreed.
“It’s a short run (from Alaska) to all the major LNG consumers in East Asia,” he said.
Wright supplied enthusiasm but did not detail any possible solutions to the financing hurdle.
Throughout this entire session, I have not heard a single legislator ask: “What can we do to clear the path for this project to happen?”
The greatest risk to Alaska LNG? The Alaska Legislature
Harold Hollis, Fairbanks Daily News Miner, April 21,2026
Alaskans often ask me what the greatest risk is to the Final Investment Decision and the ultimate construction of the Alaska LNG Project.
My answer has always been clear: the Alaska State Legislature. Recent behavior from our legislators has only confirmed this, as they appear to be positioning themselves to kill the project — and with it, Alaska’s future.
In the Senate Resources Committee hearings, the motivations are on full display. Some legislators view maximizing the state “take” and the funding of budget deficits as the only metrics of success.
Others harbor a fundamental disdain for private-sector capital, specifically targeting those in the oil, gas, and energy infrastructure industries.
Finally, some are simply obsessed with petty political grudges; for instance, Chair Cathy Giessel’s apparent fixation on settling a perceived score with Gov. Mike Dunleavy by opposing any initiative he supports.
This political theater is dangerous, works against the interests of all Alaskans, and puts this transformational project in jeopardy. Legislators routinely use the phrase, “Of course we all support a gas pipeline …” as a convenient escape from accountability. This disingenuous opening is almost always a precursor to spiteful attacks on the oil and gas industry, the Alaska LNG Project, the private-sector developer Glenfarne, and the state corporation empowered to oversee the state’s interest.
As the source of their power, legislators often cite Article VIII, Section 2 of the Alaska Constitution: “The legislature shall provide for the utilization, development, and conservation of all natural resources belonging to the State … for the maximum benefit of its people.”
While this is a foundational mandate, the Legislature’s interpretation seems narrowed to a single focus: generating maximum revenue for the Legislature to spend. One member of the Senate Resources Committee recently had the gall to imply that because the project doesn’t generate $3 billion annually to cover the state’s budget deficit, he cannot support it.
Throughout this entire session, I have not heard a single legislator ask: “What can we do to clear the path for this project to happen?”
Our state is facing a slow decline: an energy crisis, a steady outflow of population, an ever-increasing government budget, and stagnating private-sector activity.
Legislators often claim the solution is more spending on a failing education system and state entitlements. Yet, what specific solutions has the Legislature offered to provide long-term energy security?
Solving this foundational issue by supporting the Alaska LNG Project clearly meets the threshold of “maximum benefit” for the people.
The real danger of the Legislature’s adversarial approach is the lost opportunity cost.
When career politicians shun private investment, projects don’t get built and the economy stalls. Rather than obsessing over how to “cut a fat hog” (extracting every possible penny before a project even begins), Alaska’s legislators need to get out of the way and let the capitalist system work.
Most Alaskans go about their days ignoring or tolerating the antics in Juneau.
But make no mistake: the Legislature is about to blow your future. It is time for Alaskans to get engaged.
