Pioneer to spud first development wells 11/25/2007
Big independent in final stages of offshore North Slope Oooguruk oil field construction; prepares to drill first of 40 wells
In mid-November Ken Sheffield, president of Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska, told attendees of the Resource Development Council's annual conference that Pioneer is nearing the end of the construction...

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: 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: ConocoPhillips drops 300,000 acres 11/18/2007
Major and its independent partners focused on appraising previously announced NPR-A discoveries
ConocoPhillips Alaska's exploration program reached into far western NPR-A last winter, 2006-07. In 2007-08 the company plans to drill closer in, with proposed exploration wells - the program had not...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Mat-Su CBM gets second chance 11/18/2007
Fowler Oil and Gas gets unanimous approval from Matanuska-Susitna Borough to drill coalbed methane well; first okayed under tough new ordinance
When Fowler Oil and Gas Corp. first came on the scene in May 2007, it had been four years since an attempt to develop coalbed methane resources in Alaska's Matanuska-Susitna Borough collapsed amid an ac...

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: 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...

Get production back up 11/18/2007
Oil company executives aren't the only people who have been weighing in on Alaska's oil tax debate. The oilfield service firms that provide Alaskans with a chunk of the state's highest paying jobs hav...

Industry less and less happy with ACES 11/18/2007
Companies tell Senate Finance that more taxes will lower, not raise, investment levels; bill includes more than two increases
Industry representatives were glum when they testified at Senate Finance Nov. 14. They'd had less than 24 hours to look through the committee substitute for Senate Bill 2001, the evolving bill that be...

AOGCC sets Oooguruk pool rules hearing 11/18/2007
The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has set a hearing Dec. 18 for pool rules for Oooguruk. The agency said Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska Inc., the Oooguruk operator, has requested an or...

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 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...

Investment at risk 11/18/2007
Oil company execs says consequences dire if Alaska hikes taxes again
Investment in Alaska is in jeopardy if the state's oil production tax is overhauled in such a way that it significantly increases the State of Alaska's take, oil company executives told attendees of t...

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...

30 STRONG: Exploration rigs more mobile 10/14/2007
For many years large, powerful and heavy drilling rigs had been the norm for exploration drilling on Alaska's North Slope. With deep drilling targets in the traditional reservoir rocks associated with...

Canada 'not for sale,' says Prentice 10/14/2007
Federal government ponders national security test for foreign takeovers of firms by state-owned enterprises, welcomes outside investment
After less than two years in office, the Canadian government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, while preaching the importance of foreign investment, is being forced to follow the lead of other develop...

Middle East looks west for security 10/07/2007
It's not just the United States that seems anxious to hedge its energy security bets outside the Middle East. Companies based in the Middle East itself are looking for alternatives to their home terri...

Pioneer still pausing on Alaska exploration 10/07/2007
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 during a media tou...

Clock ticks toward Oooguruk startup 10/07/2007
With all major equipment in place, crews work on wiring and piping in the northern Alaska's first independent-operated oil field
As our motor boat thumps its way over a low swell in Harrison's Bay in the Beaufort Sea northwest of the Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk oil fields on Alaska's North Slope, the artificial island of the 70 mil...

Fowler Oil and Gas gets green light from Mat-Su borough to drill coalbed methane well 10/07/2007
On Oct. 1 the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Planning Commission unanimously approved a conditional use permit for Fowler Oil and Gas (Alaska) to drill a coalbed methane well between Palmer and Wasilla in...

300,000 acres gone 10/07/2007
ConocoPhillips, partners, relinquish 41 NPR-A tracts west of discoveries
The culling has begun: ConocoPhillips and its partners Anadarko Petroleum and Pioneer Natural Resources have done enough drilling in northeast NPR-A that they have relinquished 300,000 acres because o...

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...

Back in the game 09/16/2007
Bill Armstrong team returns to Alaska, this time in the Cook Inlet basin
The independent responsible for bringing three new oil companies to Alaska's North Slope in 2002-05 is back in the state - this time in Southcentral Alaska's Cook Inlet basin. A newly formed, local af...

Rowan rigging up at Cosmopolitan 08/26/2007
Rowan Rig 68 has arrived at Pioneer Natural Resources' Cosmopolitan drilling site on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula and is preparing for drilling, Tadd Owens, director of government and public affairs for P...