West Alpine on hold 01/17/2010
Without corps permit, ConocoPhillips can't start work in 2010-11 winter season
Work on ConocoPhillips Alaska's Alpine West or CD-5 satellite - the first satellite planned for development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska - has been delayed by at least a year. The company...

Ho-ho-hold the holidays 01/10/2010
Proponents of Mackenzie gas have tight deadline to respond to 679-page report
It landed Dec. 30 with a thud on desks in the high-rise petroleum towers of downtown Calgary, spoiling whatever hopes employees working on the Mackenzie Gas Project might have had to put their feet up...

Parnell budgets Umiat road permitting 12/13/2009
Proposes $8 million line item in FY 2011 budget for permitting an all-season road; claims lack of infrastructure holding up development
Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell is planning to include $8 million in his fiscal year 2011 budget for the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities to permit a road to Umiat. A road to Umiat, a stag...

No foothills drilling for Anadarko 11/22/2009
Anadarko Petroleum spokesman Mark Hanley confirmed Nov. 17 that his company will not drill in the Brooks Range foothills during the coming winter exploration season. "We're probably not going to have...

The Explorers 2009: 11/15/2009
Renaissance hopes to benefit from wells drilled by the U.S. Navy more than 60 years ago. The Texas-based independent, which operates in Alaska both as Renaissance Alaska and Renaissance Cook Inlet, is...

The Explorers 2009: ConocoPhillips Alaska 11/15/2009
ConocoPhillips, the largest producer in Alaska, dates back to the beginning of the modern Alaska oil industry in the 1950s and plays a role in almost every major trend in the Alaska oil industry. In t...

The Explorers 2009: Northern Alaska and Arctic offshore 11/15/2009
In 1968 the discovery of the giant Prudhoe Bay field, the first field to be discovered on Alaska's North Slope and among the 20 largest oil fields ever discovered worldwide, triggered a northern Alask...

The Explorers 2009: Rutter and Wilbanks Corp. 11/15/2009
Over its five years in Alaska, the Texas-based independent Rutter and Wilbanks has been persistent in the face of continued challenges, but its future in the state is now more uncertain than ever. Ru...

Mining Explorers 2009: Economy dims North star in 2009 11/01/2009
Diamond, metals exploration continues, albeit at somewhat slower pace in Northwest Territories
Hampered by a recession-driven drought in capital markets, mineral explorers in the Northwest Territories met the challenges of 2009 with a variety of survival strategies. With significant diamond, pr...

Ready at Umiat 09/13/2009
Renaissance says field development will depend on sustained oil prices
The Umiat oil field, adjacent to the Colville River on the eastern side of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, has remained a tantalizing puzzle since the U.S. Navy discovered oil there in 1946 and...

August production holds level with July 09/06/2009
Alaska North Slope crude oil production averaged 572,967 barrels per day in August, an increase of 4,179 bpd or 0.73 percent from the July average of 568,788 bpd. The largest increase, more than 332...

Conoco bags Bear Tooth 09/06/2009
Firm keeps some expiring NPR-A leases; one new unit, one expansion
Faced with a looming expiration date on dozens of federal leases, ConocoPhillips worked out a deal with the Bureau of Land Management to form a new exploration unit called Bear Tooth and expand an exi...

AK-WA Connection 2009: Green works for Alaska-Washington trade 08/23/2009
Puget Sound ports, customers and others pursue environment initiatives, tout advantages of reducing emission of greenhouse gases
Businesses in the Alaska-Washington trade are focusing on an increasing number of green initiatives, working to benefit the environment and the bottom line. The ports of Seattle and Tacoma, for examp...

Seventy-nine NPR-A Conoco leases set to expire Aug. 31 08/23/2009
Seventy-nine leases operated by ConocoPhillips in the northeast sale area of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska are set to expire on Aug. 31. Neither the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, nor ConocoP...

State OKs Oooguruk participating areas 08/09/2009
On Aug. 5 Alaska's Division of Oil and Gas approved the Kuparuk and Nuiqsut participating areas for Pioneer Natural Resources' Oooguruk oil field, in the Beaufort Sea offshore Alaska's North Slope. Oi...

2 into 1 - a nonstarter; Kvisle scuttles idea of combined line 08/09/2009
It's a bit like the unwelcome party guest who just won't go home, no matter how direct the hints. Whenever the daunting costs of getting gas from the Arctic to southern markets surface, it doesn't tak...

Oooguruk field performs 08/09/2009
Oil production has exceeded Pioneer's expectations; no Cosmo drilling in sight
Good and getting better seemed to be the tone in comments about Pioneer Natural Resource's Beaufort Sea Oooguruk oil field, offshore Alaska's North Slope, during the company's earnings conference call...

Risk to reward 08/09/2009
Exploration takes breather, but project development has North Slope buzzing
If you've been to Alaska's North Slope in the last few months you know that beds and trucks are in short supply and Deadhorse, the center of oilfield activity, looks like a boom town. "There are more...

Colville production expands westward into NPR-A 07/26/2009
Production from Alaska's North Slope continues to move west, with ConocoPhillips Alaska applying to expand the Colville River unit on the western edge of existing production to the west and southwest,...

BP in Alaska: Evolving oil field technology 07/12/2009
Technology, innovation on the North Slope has helped reduce environmental impacts, reducing industry's footprint
Through decades of oil production at Prudhoe Bay and other North Slope oil fields, producers have significantly advanced technology in drilling, Arctic engineering, waste disposal and environmental ma...

BP in Alaska: Alaska's 1969 windfall 07/12/2009
Prudhoe Bay discovery attracts bidders from around world to lease sale auction
The size of the Prudhoe Bay field attracted worldwide attention, and this translated into an enormous level of interest. By the time the sale rolled around on Sept. 1, 1969, the Anchorage airport was...

BP in Alaska: North to Alaska 07/12/2009
BP's trail to Prudhoe Bay: Opened office in 1959, geologists arrived in 1960
Alaska was first mentioned within BP in a 1952 world survey of oil prospects compiled by the company's exploration department in London. The north of Alaska was included because of oil and gas discove...

Revised polar bear stocks out for review 06/28/2009
US Fish and Wildlife says Southern Beaufort Sea, Chukchi-Bering Sea populations strategic - declining or likely to be declining
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued revised population estimates for two stocks of Alaska polar bears, with comments due on the draft revised marine mammal stock assessment reports Sept. 10....

ANS May production up 7% from April drop 06/07/2009
Alaska North Slope crude oil production averaged 714,913 barrels per day in May, up 6.7 percent from an April average of 670,030 bpd. April production was driven down by a drop of almost 15 percent in...

Conoco files new Alpine West application 05/24/2009
Compared to 2005 proposal, new plan for first production from NPR-A, with pad 3 miles to south, includes larger pad, more wells
ConocoPhillips Alaska has restarted permitting efforts for its CD-5 Alpine satellite development, Alpine West, which will be the first production from the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. ConocoPhil...