State requesting bids 12/30/2007
Competing exploration license proposals wanted; Copper River leases issued
The Alaska Division of Oil and Gas said Dec. 17 it has received two exploration license proposals which it intends to evaluate and is requesting competing proposals. Because the state is soliciting fo...

Combined Niakuk PAs boost state's take 12/23/2007
A Dec. 5 approval by Alaska's Division of Oil and Gas of a single, combined Niakuk participating area in the Prudhoe Bay unit on Alaska's North Slope resolves an issue that dates back to 1997. And the...

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: Exploring on pause, development on go 11/18/2007
Pioneer focusing on Oooguruk development, Cosmo delineation; exploration still on hold due to disappointing results, concern about Alaska's tax regime
Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources has no immediate plans to resume its Alaska oil and gas exploration program, Timothy Dove, Pioneer's president and chief operating officer, said on Sept. 27, 200...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Escopeta, Renaissance hunt for jack-up 11/18/2007
Escopeta Oil has led the effort to bring a mobile offshore drilling unit into Cook Inlet, the body of water in Southcentral Alaska that lies over part of the Cook Inlet oil and gas basin. That hunt ha...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Paspalof to head Alaska operations 11/18/2007
Pacific Energy buys bulk of Forest Oil's Alaska assets; word is California independent buying jack-up for Cook Inlet exploration
Pacific Energy Resources Ltd. is looking to make Alaska's Cook Inlet basin a core area of its operations. The Long Beach, Calif., independent closed Aug. 27, 2007, on its purchase of Forest Oil Corp.'...

Paspalof to head Pacific Energy in Alaska 11/11/2007
Pacific Energy Resources Ltd. has named George Paspalof to head its Alaska operations, company president Darren Katic told Petroleum News Oct. 31. The Long Beach, Calif. independent has played its car...

Mobil's 20 percent share of CIPL split 09/30/2007
Pacific Energy Resources, which is acquiring Forest Oil's Alaska assets, will end up 50-50 owner of Cook Inlet Pipe Line with Chevron
As part of its purchase earlier this year of Forest Oil Corp.'s Alaska assets, Pacific Energy Resources Ltd. will become 50 percent owner of the Cook Inlet Pipe Line Co., the 44-mile onshore line that...

Pioneer begins drilling at Cosmopolitan 09/16/2007
Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska has begun drilling its offshore Cosmopolitan appraisal well from private land on a bluff overlooking Cook Inlet, about a quarter mile from Stariski Creek off the south...

Oil Patch Insider 09/09/2007
Shell tries to help Cook Inlet explorers Renaissance, Escopeta
Over the past few months independents Renaissance Alaska and Escopeta Oil have been talking to Shell about using one of the major's Beaufort Sea drilling units for offshore wells in Alaska's Cook Inle...

Pacific Energy closes on Forest Alaska assets 09/02/2007
Pacific Energy Resources closed Aug. 27 on its purchase of Forest Oil Corp.'s Alaska assets. The two companies announced the acquisition at the end of May and since then have been negotiating the deta...