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A power tool for teachers, researchers U.S. Energy Information Administration packs facts into updated energy profile of Alaska; state remains a top-tier oil producer Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
The U.S. Energy Information Administration has updated its state energy profile for Alaska.
The profile provides a concise overview of the state’s energy resources and consumption, and features handy tools to compare Alaska with other states.
What’s more, the profile offers an assortment of fun facts.
Did you know Alaska has 212 stations that sell motor gasoline?
Or that 3,146 alternative-fuel vehicles were in use in the state as of 2011?
Or that Alaska’s energy demand per person is almost three times higher than the U.S. average?
Find the profile at www.eia.gov/state.
Staying abreast of trends The Energy Information Administration, or EIA, is the statistical and analytical agency within the U.S. Department of Energy.
EIA said the energy sectors in each state are changing rapidly with increased oil and gas production, new renewable electricity generation and shifting fuel prices. With these trends in mind, the agency has updated its energy profiles for all 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories.
Users can find details on energy production, consumption and prices, plus state rankings for key energy statistics.
EIA’s state energy portal also offers users a multilayer mapping function to show views of fossil and renewable energy resources, oil refineries, pipelines, power plants, transmission lines and other energy infrastructure.
No. 2 for crude The Alaska energy profile states what most locals already know: “The oil and gas industry dominates Alaska’s economy.”
It goes on, however, to frame the industry’s importance in ways you might not have imagined.
“Based on the value of the major oil and gas reserves found in Alaska’s North Slope and Cook Inlet basins, and the royalties paid on that production, the United States has earned back many times more than the $7.2 million it paid Russia for Alaska in 1867. The North Slope contains more than a dozen of the 100 largest oil fields in the United States and several of the 100 largest natural gas fields. Its Prudhoe Bay field is the largest oil field in the country, although production has fallen to less than 300,000 barrels per day from its peak of 1.6 million barrels per day in 1988.”
When federal offshore areas are excluded, Alaska’s crude oil production of about 600,000 barrels per day in 2011 ranked second among the states, after Texas, the EIA says.
As for natural gas, Alaska is the second-leading producer in terms of gross withdrawals. But most of the state’s production doesn’t go to market, as volumes far exceed local demand and no pipeline exists to move the enormous North Slope reserves.
Large volumes of gas are extracted during oil production on the Slope. Most of the gas is injected back underground where it serves a useful purpose in providing reservoir pressure, which helps maintain oil production rates.
“Thus far, it has not been considered commercially feasible to build a pipeline linking natural gas produced in Alaska’s North Slope with markets in the Lower 48 states, especially with natural gas prices declining in recent years,” the EIA profile says.
More energy facts The energy profile offers lots of other facts that set Alaska apart from other states.
Until 2012, Alaska had the only terminal in the United States authorized to export liquefied natural gas. ConocoPhillips, the operator of the Cook Inlet facility, in December applied to the Department of Energy to resume the LNG exports.
Alaska has a great deal of coal, but only one operating surface coal mine, the Usibelli mine in the Interior.
Unlike most other states, Alaska is not connected to the nation’s electricity grid. The state has its own internal grid that links the more populated areas from Fairbanks to south of Anchorage.
Natural gas accounts for just over half of Alaska’s electricity generation. The state also has more than 50 hydroelectric power plants. Many remote villages burn diesel to make power.
In 2012, Alaska was one of only eight states generating some electricity from geothermal sources.
Alaska has no nuclear power plants.
In terms of natural gas prices, Alaskans apparently have a good deal. In September, Alaska had a residential rate of $9.03 per thousand cubic feet compared to the national average of $15.65, the EIA reports.
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