Cash-strapped Fox sets sights on high-cost Alaska 11/25/2007
Alaska newcomer Fox Petroleum is a very small player in a very large oil patch inhabited by much larger, better-financed, better-equipped, and more successful exploration and production companies. Fi...

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: 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...

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...

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...

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...

No Thomson drilling 09/23/2007
State denies Exxon's request to drill at Point Thomson; oral arguments Oct. 5
ExxonMobil will not be drilling at Point Thomson anytime soon. The state has denied the company's application for a 2008-09 drilling program at acreage which was part of the former unit. ExxonMobil,...

ACMP process begins for Point Thomson drilling 08/19/2007
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources has started the clock for a 50-day coastal consistency review of ExxonMobil's proposal to drill as many as seven wells in the former Point Thomson unit on Al...

Target North Slope gas? 08/19/2007
2007-2008 exploration plans in early stages, expect busy season, gas wells
If Anadarko Petroleum drills the undeveloped Gubik gas field this winter it will be the first explorer in northern Alaska to target natural gas instead of oil, betting a gas pipeline from Prudhoe Bay...

Fish or cut bait 07/15/2007
Exxon, State of Alaska: AOGCC's Point Thomson decision shouldn't be stayed
ExxonMobil and the Alaska Department of Natural Resources disagree on whether or not the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has the authority to order compulsory unitization at Point Thomson -...

AGIA race begins 07/08/2007
Applications due Oct. 1; process includes opportunity for anonymous QandA
The race is on - but how large the field is and who the runners are won't be known until sometime in October, when applications under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act are made public. AGIA is Gov. S...

Clarification on Point Thomson lawsuit, motions 06/03/2007
In the May 27 issue of Petroleum News there is a story about yet another judicial ruling in favor of the state on the Point Thomson unit. The article is about a May 22 decision by Alaska Superior Cou...

Exxon looks to AOGCC 06/03/2007
Petitions commission to form new Point Thomson unit after DNR termination
Exxon Mobil Corp., whose unit at Point Thomson was terminated by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources late last year, has petitioned the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to form a Poin...

State of Alaska wins another Point Thomson ruling 05/27/2007
Alaska Superior Court Judge Sharon Gleason issued a decision May 22 denying motions filed by former Point Thomson unit leaseholders that would have effectively delayed the court's hearing of the main...

Spencer Hosie: Alaska has no gas line because Exxon doesn't want one; state will prevail in Point Thomson litigation 05/13/2007
Alaska doesn't have a gas pipeline because ExxonMobil doesn't want to build one, a top U.S. trial attorney told the Alaska Senate Judiciary committee on May 7. "If they wanted a pipeline, you'd have a...

Alaska revenue outlook offers mixed bag 05/06/2007
State spring forecast calls for slow decline in oil prices, short-term increase in production and temporarily higher unrestricted revenue
Adhering to its trademark caution, the Alaska Department of Revenue has projected a drop in Alaska North Slope oil prices and a modest jump in ANS crude production for the coming year. In a semi-annua...

AOGCC schedules Rule 9 hearing 05/06/2007
February public meeting summarized Prudhoe Bay gas offtake study; staff recommended depletion planning prior to gas sales
Following a February public meeting on the gas offtake rate for Prudhoe Bay, the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has scheduled a hearing for June 19 on whether it should require depletion p...

No stay on Pt. Thomson 05/06/2007
Court rules against companies, says DNR can move forward with lease termination
On May 1 Alaska's Superior Court denied motions from Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil to stop the Department of Natural Resources from moving forward with the termination of the undeveloped...

BIF out for 2008-17 North Slope lease sales 04/29/2007
Two substantive changes in mitigation measures: bear interaction plans required; pipelines must be elevated minimum of seven feet
In order to hold areawide oil and gas lease sales the State of Alaska's Division of Oil and Gas director has to make a best interest finding every 10 years for each of the geographical areas in which...

Prudhoe gas offtake depends on mitigation 04/22/2007
ExxonMobil has deferred Point Thomson study with AOGCC until legal difficulties settled; commission has done no work there
Gas offtake rates need to be established for Prudhoe Bay and Point Thomson for the proposed North Slope gas pipeline. While a Prudhoe Bay offtake rate should be possible before an open season, Point T...

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...

Exxon gets cold shoulder 04/08/2007
Point Thomson operator's drilling plan for defunct leases, unit ignored by DNR
On March 23, ExxonMobil filed a "plan of operations" for the eastern North Slope "Point Thomson area" with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas. Unlike previous Point...

Exxon gets more time to file appeal 04/01/2007
Alaska DNR Commissioner Irwin gives Point Thomson operator extra 30 days to turn in appeal brief on terminated leases
Tom Irwin, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, has given Point Thomson unit operator Exxon Mobil Corp. an extra 30 days to get its appeal into him on the termination of the Nor...

Gas shippers on AGIA: It's a start 03/25/2007
North Slope explorers Chevron, BG give Alaska legislators preliminary take on governor's gas line bill; call for alignment
An Alaska natural gas pipeline project will be so big that, like Denali, it will create its own weather, driving behaviors in steel and labor markets, Chevron's new ventures manager, Vince LeMieux,...