I spent the first 15 years of my career in Alaska, and my wife and I often say that Alpine is our third child — that’s how much our operations in Alaska mean to me personally and to ConocoPhillips as a whole. I first arrived on the North Slope in 1984, but my visit last week made it clear that one thing has never changed: the resilience and dedication of the workforce.

Work on the North Slope can be challenging, like the environment itself. When the tool you need is 500 miles away, you build a new one. When a task looks impossible, you design the solution. Our teams demonstrate every day that innovation isn’t a slogan; it’s a reflex. We work as one team, keeping safety as a top priority while having each other’s backs. In this way, nothing has changed since I worked on the slope.

That grit is the reason why legacy fields like Prudhoe Bay, Kuparuk and Alpine are key to the indispensable role Alaska has played — and still plays — in our company’s story and America’s energy future. That kind of success doesn’t happen by chance — it is built by a team defined by resilience and innovation. Our people prove that every day.

When I was working on the North Slope for Arco Alaska 40 years ago, innovation wasn’t a special skill — it was a survival tactic. If weather closed in or equipment failed, we engineered solutions on the spot to keep safely working before the season slipped away. Alaska is self-selective like that: You adapt, or you fall behind.

At ConocoPhillips, that same discipline and ingenuity remain central to our work. Our job is to deliver the energy people rely on. Despite all the technology we have today, new oil is still incredibly hard to find, and that reality fuels a fierce global competition to discover hydrocarbons. Before a single well ever produces, dozens of similar prospects fail the test on geology, cost or long-term value.

One destination keeps earning our confidence and our capital: Alaska. Pursuing development here hasn’t been easy, but we persevered, invested, and delivered like no other company has. We’ve been fighting for Alaska’s future for the last 50 years, and that fight continues today.

Our nearly $9 billion investment in the Willow project underscores our commitment to developing the state’s resources. This winter, we mobilized around 2,400 people to work on Willow construction, and we expect first oil in early 2029. Once online, the project will create hundreds of long-term jobs.

Willow is just one example of how we are responsibly developing resources in the region. We’re also growing our legacy business on the Western North Slope and at the Greater Kuparuk Area with projects such as Nuna and Coyote. We plan to invest about $1 billion every year for the next decade to drill new wells, build new pads and expand existing ones.

Alpine was one of the first discoveries I worked on in Alaska. Decades later, it is still going strong, anchoring our other projects on the Western North Slope and paving the way for new opportunities in the NPR-A. Our 2026 exploration program in the NPR-A will create about 900 jobs at its peak.

We’re committed to investing in Alaska — the new discoveries, new projects and the fields that have long supported the state’s economic growth. New oil may be hard to find, but Alaska continues to reward those willing to earn it.

Ryan Lance spent the first 15 years of his career in Alaska and since 2012 has served as ConocoPhillips’ chairman and CEO.

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