THE EXPLORERS 2007: Union Energy takes Kavik leases 11/18/2007
A new company won three leases in the State of Alaska's annual North Slope areawide lease sale on Oct. 24, 2007. Union Energy (Alaska) LLC, which gave the Division of Oil and Gas a contact address in...

Wainwright test well finds gas 11/04/2007
Coalbed methane resource could provide long-term power for the Alaska village if extraction proves economically feasible
A multi-year U.S. Department of the Interior Alaska Rural Energy Project which has been searching for coalbed methane near rural Alaska villages hit pay dirt in June and July when a test well at the C...

USGS: 25% Arctic oil, gas estimate a reporter's mistake 10/21/2007
If you think the Arctic contains 25 percent of the world's remaining undiscovered petroleum, you're not alone. So do numerous writers, speakers and industry experts who have been quoting that figure s...

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...

Mark Myers on USGS, scientific challenges 09/23/2007
U.S. Geological Survey Director Mark Myers, an AAPG member who was nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate in 2006, heads up an entity that has more than 10,000 scientists, technicians...

Polar bear population seen declining 09/16/2007
Two-thirds of the world's polar bears will be killed off by 2050 - and the entire population gone from Alaska - because of thinning sea ice from global warming in the Arctic, government scientists for...

Greenland resources get fine-tuning in USGS report 09/02/2007
A U.S. Geological Survey report gives a little more meaning to the "green" in Greenland. In a study of the East Greenland Rift Basins Province, which covers about 500,000 square kilometers, the USGS f...

Oil Patch Insider 08/26/2007
Boyd joins Norsk Hydro in Alaska; Arctic Energy Summit extends early bird deadline to Sept. 7
Norsk Hydro USA has hired Ken Boyd as a consultant in Alaska. Jim Meek, manager of business development for the Houston-based affiliate of Norway's mega-major Hydro, said Boyd would be the company's "...

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...

Between now and gas line 08/12/2007
Banks: How soon Prudhoe gas can be sold depends on unit activity in interim
How soon Prudhoe Bay natural gas can be sold into a pipeline without negatively impacting oil production will be determined by what Prudhoe lessees do in the unit between now and pipeline startup, Kev...

Touring the North Slope 07/29/2007
Myers, Houseknecht, Mull join in show and tell with industry, state, federal geologists
The annual North Slope show-and-tell tour, organized by Alaska's Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, has become something of an institution among North Slope geologists. And this year's to...

Beaufort coastal erosion accelerating 07/08/2007
The rate of erosion of the Beaufort Sea coast north of Teshekpuk Lake in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska more than doubled between 1955 and 2005, according to a U.S. Geological Survey report by...

CBM drilling starts at Wainwright 06/17/2007
Test drilling for coalbed methane near the village of Wainwright on the Chukchi Sea coast is underway. On June 11 the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission issued a permit to drill the Wainwrigh...

PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: What's cooking in the 'kitchens?' 04/08/2007
Two offshore Cook Inlet prospects that Escopeta Oil plans to explore laid groundwork for their unusual names millions of years ago
In exploring Cook Inlet, Escopeta Oil geologists gained their inspiration for naming two offshore oil and gas prospects that they hope to explore this year. The prospects, Kitchen and East Kitchen, a...

Looking for Cook Inlet hydrocarbon kitchen 04/01/2007
Former Mobil Oil geologist Frank Banar explains how Escopeta's Kitchen prospects may contain large quantities of gas and light oil
Only a drill bit is going to determine how much oil and gas lies deep beneath Alaska's upper Cook Inlet in Escopeta Oil and Gas's Kitchen prospects. But a multi-year effort by Escopeta to bring a jack...

Congress gets climate change warnings 03/25/2007
Two Alaskans from different camps joined others in urging Congress March 20 to take action to address climate change. Deborah Williams, Alaska conservation activist and former special assistant for A...

Testing for shallow gas at Wainwright 03/18/2007
Well to be drilled in the early summer will test for gas in coal seams under the Chukchi coast village
After a pause of a couple of years, the project to test the potential to use coalbed natural gas as an energy source in rural Alaska is under way again, this time in Wainwright on the Chukchi Sea coas...

North Slope gas hydrate well hits target 02/25/2007
BP-operated Mount Elbert well confirms presence of gas hydrate accumulation and enables coring and testing of gas hydrate zone
A joint government, industry and university team investigating gas hydrate deposits under Alaska's North Slope hit the jackpot in mid-February, when the BP-operated Mount Elbert stratigraphic test wel...

Bush: ANWR still in the picture 02/11/2007
Despite Democratic-led Congress, White House tenders controversial petroleum development provision in fiscal 2008 budget proposal
President Bush inserted oil drilling on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge into the $2.9 trillion budget proposal for fiscal 2008 that he unveiled Feb. 5. But the move likely wi...

KUPARUK ANNIVERSARY: Environmental studies from the get-go 01/21/2007
Company has been studying wildlife at Kuparuk since development days; swans targeted, caribou also a focus
Caryn Rea, senior staff biologist for ConocoPhillips Alaska, says there's always been a biologist with the company - starting in ARCO days - on the North Slope. In the 1970s it was Angus Gavin, who "d...

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...

New foothills digital map released 12/24/2006
The U.S. Geological Survey and the Alaska Department of Natural Resources have released the latest digital geological map of a series that they are jointly publishing for quadrangles stretching from U...

Alaska scientist making his mark at USGS 11/26/2006
Resignation from DNR's Division of Oil and Gas proved fortuitous for Mark Myers, who is now director of a national agency
What a difference a year makes. Mark Myers couldn't have been more accurate in using those words to describe his dramatic shift in fortunes since he resigned as head of Alaska's Division of Oil and Ga...

ConocoPhillips' 2007 exploration program in Alaska to top '06 effort 11/26/2006
Company President Jim Bowles tells RDC conference Conoco drilled smaller plays closer to infrastructure last year; in 2007 company going back into NPR-A, as far west as Barrow
ConocoPhillips Alaska focused its 2006 exploration close to existing infrastructure at Kuparuk and Alpine, the company's president, Jim Bowles, told the Resource Development Council's annual conferenc...

Drilling CI Jurassic? 11/19/2006
Chevron considering testing pre-Tertiary under known Cook Inlet oil pools
In John Zager's speech at the Resource Development Council's 27th annual conference in Anchorage on Nov. 15, he said Chevron is planning a multi-year investment program to stabilize and increase produ...