Complete PDF Edition Petroleum News
Week of March 31, 2024

  • Willow's on the way   03/31/2024   ConocoPhillips Alaska is in full swing with construction for its Willow project on the North Slope in the National Petroleum Reserve, which is estimated to produce 180,000 barrels of oil per day at its peak. "At ConocoPhillips we're incredibly busy with drilling in major projects all across the Slop....

  • ANS in consolidation   03/31/2024   North Slope crude added 13 cents March 27 to close at $85.62 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate slid 27 cents to close at $81.35 and Brent slid 16 cents to close at $86.09. The Alaska benchmark extended its recent consolidation in the mid $80s after trading in a tight $1.19 range over the tra....

  • The wisdom of Herrera   03/31/2024   "In 1960 I came to Alaska straight out of college in the UK and was given a job by BP as an exploration geologist," Roger Herrera said in remarks to Meet Alaska March 22 in Anchorage. "I cut my teeth here in Alaska in the days when there were no maps, only oblique aerial photographs, which were ver....

  • Sims: Not price, but market size preventing more gas development   03/31/2024   Is there a lot of natural gas remaining in Cook Inlet? Yes, Enstar President John Sims told the Resource Development Council March 21. Would offering producers a higher price lead to development of more volumes? That hasn't worked. Sims said Enstar has offered higher priced contracts but that did....

  • No commercial hydrocarbons in Bear 1, per ConocoPhillips 10-K  03/31/2024   In its 2023 10-K, ConocoPhillips reported on its Bear 1 wildcat, saying that "no commercial hydrocarbons were found and the well was deemed a dry hole and permanently plugged and abandoned." The well was "at a location 30 miles south of the Greater Kuparuk Area and east of the Colville River on stat....

  • 9th Circuit OKs incidental take regs, with rework of 1 component  03/31/2024   On March 19 a three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit issued a majority decision regarding a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service five-year incidental take regulation for the minor disturbance of polar bears and walruses in the southern Beaufort Sea and adjacent lands. The decis....


  • Pikka and nearby oil discoveries together could rival Kuparuk   03/31/2024   Yereth Rosen's recent article in the Alaska Beacon about two speakers at the March 22 Meet Alaska conference carried highlights from Santos about its plans for the future that are worth highlighting. The speech by Connor Dunn, a senior vice president with ConocoPhillips Alaska who oversees the Willo....

  • Son carrying on Jim White's legacy   03/31/2024   The son of fierce property rights defender James "Jim" Wynn White is continuing his father's legacy by re-entering the Pelch Well on Beaver Loop Road in Kenai, Alaska. James "Jim" Arnim White, a University of Alaska Fairbanks graduate with a doctorate in energy engineering from Texas A&M University,....

  • Baker Hughes US rig drops 5 to 624  03/31/2024   The Baker Hughes' U.S. rotary drilling rig count was 624 for the week ending March 22, down by five rigs from 629 the previous week, and down by 134 from 758 a year ago, following a drop of seven rigs last week. The rig count increased in four and decreased in four of the last eight weeks, with a ga....

  • State approves various Slope work projects  03/31/2024   The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas has approved three North Slope infrastructure projects, including moving an existing camp, adding an airport gate and upgrading a transmission line. A March 1 approval is of a request by Prudhoe Bay operator Hilcorp North Slope to r....

  • Below-average maximum for Arctic ice   03/31/2024   figures for the winter extent of Arctic sea ice, released March 26 by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, indicate Arctic sea ice likely reached its maximum extent March 14 at 5.8 million square miles, the 14th lowest maximum extent in the 46-year satellite record. (See map in the online issue P....