The Trump administration on Thursday approved a plan submitted by Italian oil giant Eni to begin drilling in the Arctic.
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved the plan on the condition that the European energy company would attain all necessary state approvals and those required from other federal agencies.
Eni is expected to begin drilling in December just 15 miles northwest of Prudhoe Bay in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea.
“We know there are vast oil and gas resources under the Beaufort Sea, and we look forward to working with Eni in their efforts to tap into this energy potential,” said Walter Cruickshank, the ocean energy bureau’s director.
“Eni brought to us a solid, well-considered plan,” he added in describing the first approved Arctic oil plan under President Trump.
Trump issued an executive order this year for the Interior Department to develop and implement an offshore energy plan that looks to open up all areas off the nation’s coastline to drilling. Trump and the Interior Department last month announced they would redo the Obama administration’s 2017-2022 leasing plan for offshore drilling to open up development on the Atlantic and Arctic coastlines.
The Obama administration had restricted drilling in the Arctic through 2022 under its lease plan, while establishing a number of new strict regulations for any companies wishing to eventually drill there. Eni had an existing lease in the Arctic, which the Trump administration is honoring. Eni will drill only test wells in the Beaufort Sea to ascertain the amount of oil and natural gas off the coast of Alaska.
