Alaska DOR forecasts declining revenues 12/14/2008
The state expects oil prices to remain below the level assumed for this year's budget but future price trends are very uncertain
With a chart of oil prices over the past year looking a bit like a cross section of one of the more rugged parts of the Alaska Range, predicting where prices will go from here might seem like an exerc...

Total buys into Chevron's onshore White Hills prospect 03/23/2008
Total EandP USA Inc. has acquired a 30 percent working interest from Chevron in the White Hills prospect, which is in the Brooks Range Foothills, 24.6 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of the giant Prudho...

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...

Alaska oil forecast shaky 11/18/2007
Production interruptions, infrastructure renewal, slowed heavy oil pace the cause
The fall production forecast for Alaska's North Slope is down from the spring forecast - down for the next eight years. Projected volumes have dropped as much as 130,000 barrels per day for fiscal yea...

Shell leads sale 04/22/2007
$39M of $42M from Shell, Total at $2.2M; just over 500,000 acres receive bids
Leasing moved farther offshore in the Shell-dominated Beaufort Sea outer continental shelf lease sale held April 18 in Anchorage. Total high bids were $42,165,195 in Minerals Management Service sale 2...

One more round for Kuvlum prospect 03/25/2007
Federal Beaufort Sea lease sale set for April 18; old oil prospect still available; North Slope Borough, whalers seek injunction
All eyes will be on Shell Offshore and the still available Kuvlum prospect going into the third and final Alaska Beaufort Sea lease sale in the federal government's current five-year oil and gas le...

MEET ALASKA 2007: Alaska roll call lookin' good 01/21/2007
Today 31 oil and gas companies have significant investments in Alaska; in 1996 that number was down to 7
Ten years ago Petroleum News published a "roll call" of oil and gas companies doing business in Alaska. In the five preceding years the number had dropped by more than one-half, from 19 active compani...

Logsdon: Great time to pump investment 03/05/2006
Petroleum economist takes Alaska Senate committee on virtual tour of what growing North Slope production would mean to state
One of the stated goals of the administration's proposed production profits tax - along with increasing revenues to the state - is to encourage investment in the state, including investment in explora...

THE EXPLORERS 2005: Mega-major initially focused on Beaufort Sea OCS leases, but also looking for other opportunities 11/31/2005
Shell Oil returned to Alaska in March 2005, taking 84 leases for $44 million in a U.S. Minerals Management Service Beaufort Sea lease sale. Shell's leases are along a trend stretching east from Harri...

THE EXPLORERS 2005: MMS rejects bids for Kuvlum in Beaufort 11/31/2005
The Minerals Management Service rejected Shell's bids for the Kuvlum prospect in the Beaufort Sea, MMS Alaska Regional Director John Goll said Oct. 6. The agency has held two Beaufort Sea sales in its...

MMS rejects bids for Kuvlum in Beaufort 10/23/2005
The Minerals Management Service rejected Shell's bids for the Kuvlum prospect in the Beaufort Sea, MMS Alaska Regional Director John Goll said Oct. 6. The agency has held two Beaufort Sea sales in its...

Shell, ConocoPhillips buy EnCana's Alaska Beaufort Sea OCS leases 10/23/2005
Five years after it entered Alaska as Alberta Energy, Calgary independent EnCana has officially left the state. There is still the matter of getting lease assignments approved by the feds, but the Cal...

Shell has stranded discoveries, prospects 08/28/2005
Hammerhead, Kuvlum on company's Beaufort Sea leases; official says Shell looking at other opportunities in Alaska
Shell had some of its top Americas' exploration staff in town the week of Aug. 22 for an open house at the company's Anchorage office. The newly opened office is staffed by geologist Tom Homza, Anchor...

EXPLORERS USA 2005: Every which way 05/08/2005
Explorers head north of Barrow Arch; Shell returns to Alaska, Beaufort OCS
The March 30, 2005, Beaufort Sea federal lease sale, which saw the return of mega-major Shell Oil to Alaska, could signal the beginning of a new era for the state's oil and gas industry. Shell, spend...

Exploration heads north of Barrow Arch 04/03/2005
Shell and ConocoPhillips purchase leases well to the north of the traditional North Slope exploration plays at MMS OCS sale
Does the MMS Beaufort Sea lease sale held on March 30 signal the beginning of a new era for the Alaska oil and gas industry? Traditional exploration plays in northern Alaska have tended to focus on a...

Shell dominates 04/03/2005
Spends $44.4 million in $46.7 million Beaufort sale with 86 winning bids
Shell has said for some time that it is interested in Alaska, and the company put its money on the table March 30 in Anchorage, spending more than $44.4 million on 86 winning bids in the Minerals Mana...

The Oil Patch Insider 03/07/2004
Canadians join forces to trap harmful gases underground
The Canada and Alberta governments have achieved a rare moment of harmony on an environmental issue. They joined forces March 1 by agreeing to share costs in a C$30 million experiment to create a mar...

MMS sale draws $10M 09/28/2003
ConocoPhillips picks up Sandpiper leases, EnCana goes for large block off NPR-A
Three companies bid more than $10 million at the U.S. Minerals Management Service's Sept. 24 Beaufort Sea sale, with a known field in the central Beaufort and a wildcat area north of the National Petr...

MMS issues Beaufort sale notice 08/24/2003
The Minerals Management Service published its final sale notice Aug. 21 for the Beaufort Sea OCS Lease Sale 186, announcing it would offer the entire sale area for lease, deferring only two areas. The...

MMS slashes bid, rental amounts for sale 186 07/27/2003
The Minerals Management Service has dramatically reduced the minimum bid and rental rates for leases to be offered in its upcoming Beaufort Sea oil and gas lease sale. When MMS announced the sale in F...

The Oil Patch Insider 07/06/2003
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Kuvlum, other discoveries may be key to successful lease sale 06/29/2003
MMS expecting bidders, but companies are keeping intentions close to the vest
With three months to go and an offshore lease sale featuring known discoveries and attractive government incentives to drill, just how industry might respond with its checkbook to proposed Beaufort Se...

Selling the Beaufort 03/02/2003
MMS's Goll heads south to try and raise interest in Beaufort Sea OCS acreage
John Goll, Alaska regional director for the U.S. Minerals Management Service, is about to embark on a journey that may help save Alaska's struggling Outer Continental Shelf leasing program. Goll told...

USGS: ANWR oil likely sweet, light 01/26/2003
Coastal plain low sulfur, high gravity oil is cleaner than Prudhoe Bay crude
The coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may be a desolate and windblown place, but studies suggest that beneath its flat surface is sweet, low sulfur crude - in high demand by refiner...

Five bucks a barrel 12/22/2002
For every barrel of oil leaving state, $5 needs to be reinvested, says Revenue; state must encourage investment to develop existing oil, find new fields
The Alaska Department of Revenue estimates that it will take an investment of $5 for every barrel of crude oil leaving the North Slope to maintain ANS production at a million barrels per day. In its...