Cosmo drilling done, flow test next 11/25/2007
Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska has finished drilling a horizontal appraisal well in the 25,000-acre Cosmopolitan unit in the Cook Inlet basin. Company President Ken Sheffield told attendees of the m...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Union Energy takes Kavik leases 11/18/2007
A new company won three leases in the State of Alaska's annual North Slope areawide lease sale on Oct. 24, 2007. Union Energy (Alaska) LLC, which gave the Division of Oil and Gas a contact address in...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Idaho newcomer in Cook Inlet 11/18/2007
Newcomer Duke Oil and Gas-Alaska LLC joined the bevy of small companies and investor consortiums that clamored for tracts in Alaska's Cook Inlet areawide oil and gas lease sale May 24, 2006. Its leases...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Small independents in high gear 11/18/2007
Five small EandP gas companies plan to drill exploration wells on Alaska's North Slope winter 2007-08
Five small independent oil and gas companies expect to drill exploration wells on Alaska's North Slope in the winter exploration season of 2007-08. In the past, the highest number of small independent...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Eni moving forward with Nikaitchuq 11/18/2007
Beaufort Sea project sanction expected by end of 2007, first oil 2009; Maggiore, Rock Flour undergoing evaluation
The signs are good that Eni will move forward with development of its Nikaitchuq unit offshore Alaska's North Slope in 2008. On Oct. 5, 2007, the Houston-based affiliate of Italy's Eni SpA received S...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Benchmark Oil and Gas buying seismic, talking to operators 11/18/2007
It took more than a year, but Benchmark Oil and Gas, along with other successful bidders, finally received its lease assignments from the State of Alaska for the 20 tracts it won in the May 2006 Cook...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Statoil Hydro enters Alaska; Ken Boyd 'man on the ground' for mega-major 11/18/2007
In mid-2007, Norsk Hydro USA hired Ken Boyd as a consultant in Alaska. Jim Meek, manager of business development for the Houston-based affiliate of Norway's Hydro which merged in October 2007 with Nor...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Anadarko to drill first ANS gas well 11/18/2007
Has two rigs under contract, drilling 2 Brooks Range gas prospects, going back to finish Jacob's Ladder
Anadarko Petroleum and its partners in the Brooks Range Foothills, BG Alaska and Petro-Canada, plan to drill the first two natural gas exploration wells in northern Alaska this winter. Gas discoveries...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Chevron: working across the state 11/18/2007
White Hills exploration to begin this winter, company continues to look at Cook Inlet opportunities
Chevron, an oil and gas explorer and producer in Alaska for decades, will begin exploration drilling this winter at its White Hills prospect in the Brooks Range foothills on the southern edge of the N...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: FEX puts NPR-A drilling on pause 11/18/2007
Independent remains committed, but concerned about land access, high costs, fiscal regime, postpones drilling for two years
FEX L.P.'s decision to put its Alaska drilling program on pause for two years came as a surprise to everyone except those paying attention to the federal government's cancellation of National Petroleu...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Armstrong, Total back in the game 11/18/2007
An affiliate of Denver-based Armstrong Oil and Gas and a subsidiary of Paris-based Total S.A. returned to Alaska in 2007. When independent Armstrong Alaska LLC and Houston-based major Total EandP USA In...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Alaska gets $2 million from lease sales 11/18/2007
An Alaska investor group and a new company dominated the State of Alaska's annual North Slope and Beaufort Sea areawide lease sales. When bids were read Oct. 24 in Anchorage by Acting Director of the...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Welcome to The Explorers 2007 11/18/2007
Welcome to The Explorers annual magazine, which got its start as The Independents in 2002. We changed the name to The Explorers in 2004 because it was evident, as oil prices began to rise, that there...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Banks sees partnership of equals 11/18/2007
Much has been made this last year about the relationship between state government and Alaska's oil and gas industry. Many of you in the business community have no doubt heard and maybe repeated rumors...

Solving Cook Inlet's gas conundrum 11/18/2007
Region needs gas for foreseeable future; gas exploration, gas storage, North Slope gas, LNG all factor into energy supply options
The days of an overabundance of cheap natural gas from Cook Inlet basin may be over, but Southcentral Alaska needs reliable gas supplies for years to come was a recurring theme during the first day of...

Seven drilling ANS exploration wells 11/18/2007
Gas target of two Anadarko's wells; four small independents to drill; Chevron starts multi-year exploratory program in Foothills
Seven oil and gas companies plan to drill exploration wells on Alaska's North Slope this winter; an eighth company is moving forward with plans to re-enter an old exploration well on an undeveloped pr...

Alaska's PSIO completes staff hiring 11/18/2007
The Petroleum System Integrity Office has completed its recruitment efforts, PSIO Coordinator Jonne Slemons told Petroleum News Nov. 14. Slemons said Dan Rice, PE, was hired in July as PSIO's lead te...

AOGCC reduces potential oil flow from North Slope Burglin well 11/04/2007
Following an Oct. 29 decision by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to further reduce the potential unassisted oil flow from the North Slope Burglin No. 33-1 well, Alaskan Crude Corp. says...

Alaska gets $2M in bids 10/28/2007
Bidders at Beaufort, North Slope sales fill in around prospects, only 2 big bidders
An Alaska investor group and a new company dominated the State of Alaska's annual North Slope and Beaufort Sea areawide lease sales. When bids were read in Anchorage Oct. 24 by Acting Director of the...

FEX puts NPR-A drilling on pause 10/21/2007
Independent remains committed, but concerned about land access, high costs, fiscal regime, postpones drilling for two years
FEX L.P.'s decision to put its Alaska drilling program on pause for two years came as a surprise to everyone except those paying attention to the federal government's cancellation of National Petroleu...

Nikaitchuq OK'd 10/21/2007
Expansion approved; Eni applies for royalty reduction, needs project sanction
Eni US Operating Co. has received state approval for expansion of its Nikaitchuq unit and has applied for royalty modification for a dozen leases in the expanded unit. The Alaska Department of Natura...

ARCTIC ENERGY SUMMIT: High Arctic: industry's last oil and gas frontier 10/14/2007
There's one thing industry hopefully can look to when the Earth's offshore oil and gas resources south of the giant Arctic icecap are exhausted. Many geologists now believe this vast and frigid region...

Superior Court decision on Point Thomson out by end of year, says judge; then likely on to Alaska Supreme Court 10/14/2007
An Alaska Superior Court decision on the termination of the Point Thomson unit should be out by the end of the year. It's clear to everyone that the probability of an appeal to the Alaska Supreme Cou...

BRPC permits Tofkat exploration prospect 10/07/2007
One to two wells planned this winter at exploration prospect northeast of Nuiqsut; access will be off of winter ice road to Alpine
Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. has submitted a lease plan of operations for its Tofkat exploration program to the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas, with one to two wells planned for this winter season. T...

Armstrong boosts odds on southern Kenai 09/30/2007
Enstar has three possible sources for gas to extend gas grid into southern Kenai; North Fork's new operator seen as first producer
The odds of extending the natural gas pipeline system on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula from its terminus at Happy Valley to the peninsula's southernmost city got a whole lot better when Armstrong Oil and G...