WASHINGTON As scientists and environmentalists focus on stopping the Republican-led push to open up a section of Alaskas fragile Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development, the Trump administration is celebrating its approval of new exploratory drilling operations in nearby Arctic waters.

The Interior Departments Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement announced Tuesday that it has granted a permit for Italian multinational company Eni to build new exploratory wells from a man-made island in the Beaufort Sea.

Achieving American energy dominance moved one step closer today with the approval of Arctic exploration operations on the Outer Continental Shelf for the first time in more than two years, the bureau touted in a news release.

The approval allows Eni to begin drilling four new exploratory wells as early as next month, according to BSEE. Operations are expected to result in the creation of as many as 150 jobs and production of up to 20,000 barrels of oil per day.

Spy Island is an 11-acre gravel island located approximately 3 miles off Alaskas Oliktok Point, and one of four artificial islands in the Beaufort Sea used for oil and gas production. Between Spy Island and Oliktok Point, Eni has 18 producing wells, 13 injector wells and one disposal well.

Eni is now planning to use extended-reach drilling techniques to access deep federal submerged lands, according to BSEE. The bureaus approval Tuesday comes several months after the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management conditionally approved Enis proposal.