The Willow Prospect is an oilfield development within the Bear Tooth Unit of the National Petroleum Reserve on federal leases about 118 miles (190 km) southeast of Utqiaġvik and 33 miles (53 km) west-northwest of Nuiqsut, Alaska. Operated by ConocoPhillips Alaska, the project is expected to produce around 600 million barrels of oil over a roughly 30-year lifespan, with peak output of about 180,000 barrels a day. This is separate from the U.S. Geological Survey‘s broader estimate that the entire National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska holds about 8.7 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil. Construction has been under way since winter 2023-24, and as of early 2026 the project was roughly halfway complete, with first oil still targeted for 2029.

The National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska was established by President Warren G. Harding in 1923 as Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4, at a time when the U.S. Navy was converting its fleet from coal to oil. In 1976 the reserve was transferred from the Navy to the Department of the Interior and placed under the Bureau of Land Management. Between 1944 and 1981 the Navy and the U.S. Geological Survey drilled, and later abandoned, 136 exploratory wells across the reserve. In 1998 about 87% of the northeast area was opened to oil and gas leasing, and in 2003 the USGS identified the area just east of Teshekpuk Lake as holding the best prospects for large reserves. As of October 2012, a total of 1,374,583 acres (556,274 ha) had been leased, comprising 872,125 acres (352,936 ha) in the northeast region and 502,458 acres (203,338 ha) in the northwest.

The National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska is ecologically significant, and human settlements within it are small and few, the largest being Utqiaġvik, Nuiqsut, Wainwright, and Anaktuvuk Pass. The reserve includes Teshekpuk Lake, an important nesting ground for migratory shorebirds and waterfowl, and supports more than half a million caribou from the Western Arctic and Teshekpuk herds. The Western Arctic herd calves in the Utukok, Kokolik, and Colville uplands, while the Teshekpuk herd calves around Teshekpuk Lake itself. The reserve also contains the headwaters and much of the course of the Colville River, Alaska’s largest river north of the Arctic Circle. Read more here and here. Explore more of Willow Prospect and the National Petroleum Reserve here: