Federal regulators on Tuesday gave an Italian oil company the green light to conduct exploration drilling in federal territory of the Arctic Ocean off Alaska within weeks, the first approval of its kind in two years in a move that was quickly blasted by a prominent conservation group.

Officials with the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Eni and Doyon personnel tour Spy Island during a BSEE site visit October 17, 2017. (Guy Hayes / BSEE) Eni U.S. Operating plans to set a record drilling distance in Alaska of more than 6 miles in an area northwest of Prudhoe Bay, reaching the exploration site beneath federal waters from a man-made island located in shallow state waters near the North Slope shore.