State to release more exploration data

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

On Dec. 20 Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas announced that within 30 days it would release for public access more exploration data obtained under the terms of state oil and gas production tax credits. Companies making use of tax credits in support of exploration activities have had to file resulting exploration data with the division, with the data becoming publicly available after specific time intervals.

In this new data release, the state is making available a 3-D seismic survey shot by Veritas DGC Land on the coast and in nearshore waters of the Beaufort Sea, immediately north of the Prudhoe Bay unit on the North Slope. Also from state waters of the Beaufort Sea come some reprocessed 2-D seismic data and data from an ocean bottom geotechnical study near Cross Island. The state is also releasing data from a geological field program in the central and southern part of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

Data released by the division can normally be obtained through the Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys’ Geologic Materials Center.

- ALAN BAILEY