The Explorers 2009: Interior Alaska basins 11/15/2009
Although analysts think that the majority of Alaska's oil and gas resources lie within the major basins of northern Alaska, Cook Inlet and the Bristol Bay area, there are several other basins around t...

Mining Explorers 2009: Bokan Mountain deposit is rare earth 11/01/2009
Ucore focuses on exploration of strategic rare earth elements in Southeast Alaska
Ucore Uranium Inc., a junior based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has shifted its primary focus at the Bokan Mountain Granite complex in Southeast Alaska from uranium to rare earth elements. Ucore changed...

22 percent of undiscovered oil in Arctic 11/01/2009
EIA recycles USGS estimate from last year, says vast potential of shale gas could defer development of faraway Arctic gas deposits
The region north of the Arctic Circle could hold about 22 percent of the world's undiscovered conventional oil and natural gas, an Oct. 19 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration says. ...

Field test of CO2-CH4 exchange planned 10/04/2009
ConocoPhillips has patented exchange technology developed in laboratory for producing methane hydrate without dissociating water
The U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory says technically recoverable gas hydrate resources on Alaska's North Slope are some 85 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered gas res...

Arctic Directory: Investing in the Arctic 09/20/2009
Big resource, big opportunity, big challenge in Far North outrank many hot spots
The Arctic is said to outrank many of the globe's current exploration hot spots, including Brazil and West Africa. But don't expect companies to flock to the Far North anytime soon, especially at a ti...

Ready at Umiat 09/13/2009
Renaissance says field development will depend on sustained oil prices
The Umiat oil field, adjacent to the Colville River on the eastern side of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, has remained a tantalizing puzzle since the U.S. Navy discovered oil there in 1946 and...

No Yukon Flats swap 07/12/2009
FWS decides not to exchange prospective wildlife refuge land with Doyon
In the four years or so that a proposed land exchange between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Doyon Ltd. in the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge has lain on the table, the subject of a heat...

Mining News: Bokan Mountain may be strategic deposit 06/28/2009
Investors take note as demand for unfamiliar rare earth elements raises profile of resource in Southeast as global supply shrinks
Advances in high technology, especially the recent drive to produce increasingly efficient hybrid automobiles, is spurring demand for rare earth elements and energizing a little-known mining sector wi...

USGS develops way of sizing CCS reservoirs 06/14/2009
The U.S. Geological Survey has developed a new method for estimating the capacities of potential carbon sequestration reservoirs in underground rock formations. Using a statistical analysis of various...

Investing in the Arctic 06/14/2009
Big resource, big opportunity, big challenge in Far North outrank many hot spots
The Arctic is said to outrank many of the globe's current exploration hot spots, including Brazil and West Africa. But don't expect companies to flock to the Far North anytime soon, especially at a...

Arctic oil, gas riches 06/07/2009
USGS: 30 percent of undiscovered gas and 12 percent of oil in the Arctic
The U.S. Geological Survey has published the detailed results of its recent Arctic oil and gas assessment. The agency had issued the general conclusions of its assessment in the summer of 2008, as rep...

Consortium locates gas hydrates in GOM 05/24/2009
Government and industry project finds saturated deposits in reservoir sands at two out of three sites drilled in offshore expedition
In another key step towards the possible future development of gas hydrates, a potential major source of natural gas, a research team has found highly saturated deposits of the material in reservoir-q...

Remediation money for Drew Point well 05/10/2009
Dry hole drilled by federal government in 1978 on Beaufort Sea coast; bottom plug set, but diesel left in top 2,000 feet of hole
The Alaska office of the Bureau of Land Management will receive $37.4 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for 30 projects in the state, and will use a portion of those fun...

USGS plans CBM tests at Wainwright 05/03/2009
Summer work involves production test of 2008 well and new wells to delineate extent of coal seams near North Slope village
The U.S. Geological Survey is planning to test the flow of natural gas produced from a well it drilled last summer into coal seams near the North Slope village of Wainwright. The federal agency also p...

Charting a renewable future for U.S. 04/12/2009
Salazar says renewable energy development needed to reduce dependence on foreign oil, create U.S. jobs and reduce carbon emissions
Candidate Obama said it during his presidential campaign; President Obama has repeated it since taking the oath of office; and now the Obama administration has picked up the refrain: The United States...

BLM starts work on Atigaru Point well 03/22/2009
Cleanup efforts begin on third in program to prevent environmental damage at 'legacy wells'; funding uncertain for fourth well
The federal government is tackling another decades-old well site that poses a threat to the environment because of eroding coastlines and thawing permafrost on the North Slope. The Bureau of Land Mana...

The shrinking Beaufort Sea coastline 03/08/2009
A USGS team is assessing changes along the North Slope coastline using historical and contemporary maps and aerial surveys
A recent paper published by geologists from the U.S. Geological Survey reported accelerating rates of Beaufort Sea coastal erosion along a 37-mile section of shoreline bluffs, north of Teshekpuk Lake,...

Mining News: Alaska mining industry sees quiet month 02/22/2009
Opportunities still exist in depressed economic climate, but government intervention can sometimes make things worse, not better
The Alaska mining industry was relatively quiet over the last month with most of the news coming from programs completed in 2008. In addition, some programs have already started in 2009 but details ar...

Oil Patch Insider 02/22/2009
AGIA coordinator Myers shares thoughts on gas line; Obama, Harper taking the high-tech route
As previously reported in Petroleum News, on Jan. 21, Gov. Sarah Palin named Mark Myers coordinator for the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act. In a recent interview with Petroleum News, Myers answered th...

Think again on OCS plan 02/15/2009
Salazar extends the public review period for the draft 5-year leasing program
Less than a month ago the outgoing Bush administration threw down an energy gauntlet to the incoming Obama administration by announcing a proposed new outer continental shelf oil and gas leasing progr...

USGS issues Arctic climate change report 01/25/2009
People who want to know more about the science of climate change, especially as it pertains to the Arctic regions, might want to take a look at a new report entitled "Past Climate Variability and Chan...

All about the climate 01/25/2009
Challenging future for permitting as climate change initiatives gain traction
The question of whether climate change will impact the regulatory situation in Alaska is now past, attorney Eric Fjelstad from Perkins Coie LLP told the Seminar Group's Permitting Strategies in Alaska...

One step at a time for gas hydrates 01/18/2009
DOE and BP evaluating sites for production test while ConocoPhillips starts its North Slope research for using carbon dioxide
Following success with the Mount Elbert gas hydrate stratigraphic test well on Alaska's North Slope in 2007, the U.S. Department of Energy and BP are working on plans for a first-of-its-kind, long-ter...

Upping the ante for the Yukon Flats 12/07/2008
USGS raises estimate of top of the oil window to 6,000 feet; Doyon re-assesses prospects on land close to trans-Alaska pipeline
It seems that the more that's known about the Yukon Flats basin in Alaska's Interior, the more potential the basin appears to have for substantial oil and gas resources. In the latest chapter in a ser...

The Explorers 2008: For Anadarko, exploration is a gas 11/23/2008
In Alaska since early 1990s, Anadarko expands oil production as it continues the search for gas
Of all the companies currently exploring for oil and gas in Alaska, none has garnered more interest among the general population than Anadarko Petroleum. The reason? Anadarko was the first and is stil...