Point Thomson EIS public meetings set 01/17/2010
Five public meetings have been set on the Point Thomson project environmental impact statement. The proposed project is an oil and natural gas condensate extraction operation at Point Thomson on the N...

NSB not part of suits against MMS 12/20/2009
The North Slope Borough said Dec. 15 that it has opted to continue to work with Shell and agencies on the company's Beaufort Sea exploration plan, and will not join lawsuits filed in the wake of feder...

Groups sue to stop Beaufort Sea drilling 12/20/2009
A group that helps manage Eskimo whaling in Alaska has sued to halt petroleum drilling proposed next year in the Beaufort Sea by a subsidiary of Shell Oil. The Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission and the...

Corps begins work on Point Thomson EIS 12/13/2009
ExxonMobil is moving ahead with development permitting for its Point Thomson project. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers published a notice Dec. 4 of intention to prepare a draft environmental impact s...

Cooperation the key 11/29/2009
Mayor Itta spells out North Slope Borough expectations for OCS policy
As summer sea ice recedes and marine habitats change under the influence of a warming climate, the rapidly evolving situation in the Arctic is creating a situation where a wide variety of different gr...

Beaufort leasing in state's 'best interest' 11/15/2009
Finding supports 10 years of planned sales in nearshore seas extending from Barrow to Canada; Native groups claim slight from state
Alaska oil industry regulators have cleared the way for a series of lease sales over the next decade along a vast swath of coastal waters in the Beaufort Sea. The state's oil and gas director, Kevin B...

OK for Shell plan 10/25/2009
MMS approves Beaufort Sea 2010 drilling if permitting requirements met
On Oct. 19 Shell passed another major milestone in its multiyear quest to start exploration drilling on Alaska's Arctic outer continental shelf, when the U.S. Minerals Management Service approved the...

Out for review 09/06/2009
DNR posts Shell Beaufort Sea exploration plan; Company says it intends to drill in Torpedo and Sivulliq prospects in 2010
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources has released Shell's new Beaufort Sea plan of exploration for public review, as part of a consistency determination for the Alaska Coastal Management Program...

QandA on Beaufort proposed sale 05/17/2009
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil and Gas, will hold an informal question and answer session on the proposed Beaufort Sea areawide oil and gas lease sale preliminary finding...

Hearings for Beaufort Sea areawide sales 05/10/2009
The State of Alaska is holding hearings to take public testimony on the proposed Beaufort Sea areawide oil and gas lease sale preliminary finding. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division...

DEIS out for Beaufort, Chukchi sales 12/28/2008
Minerals Management Service issues draft environmental impact statement for Alaska OCS sales scheduled for 2010, 2011, 2012
The U.S. Minerals Management Service has published a draft environmental impact statement for Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Sea oil and gas lease sales planned for 2010-12. BLM said in a Dec. 19 Federal Re...

40 Years at Prudhoe Bay: Richfield, others go elephant hunting 11/16/2008
Geologists pore over few North Slope outcroppings; California company's team gets excited about oily sands in two locations
In the early 1960s, Richfield Oil Co., with other companies that were operators, participated in the discovery of oil and gas fields across Cook Inlet, racking up success after success with such finds...

40 Years at Prudhoe Bay: Oil development spans more than 100 years 11/16/2008
Prudhoe Bay field discovery follows decades of exploration and production by geologists, others, on and off the Arctic Slope
Discovery of the giant Prudhoe Bay oil field in 1968 near the shore of the Beaufort Sea sparked a new era in petroleum exploration and production in North America and changed Alaska forever. But befor...

The whaling perspective 09/14/2008
MMS funded study highlights the positive and negative impacts of the oil and gas industry on the North Slope subsistence culture
The lively debate regarding offshore oil and gas exploration in Alaska's Beaufort and Chukchi seas leaves no one in any doubt about the level of concern in North Slope communities about the potential...

North Slope, Beaufort Sea sale date set 08/03/2008
The state will open bids Oct. 22 for its 2008 North Slope and Beaufort Sea areawide oil and gas lease sales. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas said July 25 that the b...

Mining News: The Gods must be crazy 07/27/2008
Apathy among mining industry workers in Alaska likely will tip scales in favor of Ballot Measure 4 in Aug. 26 primary election
There is no other explanation for the situation we are in – the gods must be crazy. Consider this: Gasoline prices are through the roof, but Congress won't compromise a postage stamp footprint on...

Congressional candidates to tour ANWR 07/13/2008
As high oil and gasoline prices draw attention to domestic oil prospects, seven Republican congressional candidates will come to Alaska this week to tour North Slope oil resources, including the Arcti...

ANWR's KIC well gets surface maintenance 05/04/2008
Chevron, operator of the KIC well in ANWR on Alaska's eastern North Slope, is finalizing surface remediation work at the well site. The well, drilled in partnership with BP in the winter of 1984-85,...

Chukchi's Klondike, Burger of interest 04/20/2008
ConocoPhillips taking first steps towards Chukchi Sea drilling program, Shell's 3-D coverage includes Torpedo, north of Sivulliq
A cluster of mega-bids in the February Chukchi Sea lease sale signaled interest by Shell and ConocoPhillips in two major geologic structures about 75 miles offshore around the Klondike and Burger and...

BLM wraps up work on East Teshekpuk 04/20/2008
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management finished cleaning up the East Teshekpuk No. 1 legacy well on April 17. The well is the second cleaned up by the federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Int...

Bush budget boosts well remediation 02/24/2008
Additional $11.2 million would fund two future NPR-A sites; BLM working at Teshekpuk Lake legacy well this winter
President Bush's budget proposal for fiscal year 2009 includes an $11.2 million increase to the North Slope well remediation program run by the Bureau of Land Management. The program is responsibl...

PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: ASTAC meets Arctic region's communications needs with state-of-the-art services 11/04/2007
Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative offers local and long distance, Internet, 850 MHz Wireless, wired and 700 MHz licensed wireless broadband, and Arctic Lite Transparent LAN service
Q. When was ASTAC founded, who founded it, and what was its original name? A. The Arctic Slope Regional Corp., seeking region-wide telephone service, provided seed-funding in 1979. It soon became ap...

New data issued for North Slope, Beaufort Sea areawide lease sales 08/05/2007
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources has issued decisions of "substantial new information" for the North Slope and Beaufort Sea areawide oil and gas lease sales scheduled for Oct. 24. DNR Commi...

MMS Alaska sales to go farther out 05/20/2007
Sales planned for 2007-12 could help keep trans-Alaska oil pipeline flowing; development in Arctic OCS will take 10-20 years
North Slope production is declining and the trans-Alaska oil pipeline is running at less than half the volume it carried in the 1980s. Resources from offshore Alaska could help keep flow rates up in t...

Programmatic EIS under way for seismic in Chukchi, Beaufort 04/22/2007
MMS, National Marine Fisheries Service have draft PEIS out for seismic in Arctic waters
The U.S. Minerals Management Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service have published a draft programmatic environmental impact statement "to describe and analyze the potential significant env...