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BP donates rock samples to Alaska Geologic Materials Center The donated material will enable anyone investigating or researching Alaska geology to conveniently examine actual rock specimens Alan Bailey PNA Contributing Writer
BP Exploration Alaska Inc. has donated more than 11,000 boxes of surface and subsurface rock samples to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Alaska Geologic Materials Center in Eagle River. The samples came from exploration activity by Amoco Corp. between the 1950s and the early 1990s and from the development of the Milne Point field on the North Slope by BP and Conoco.
BP has also donated more than $40,000 worth of storage facilities for the samples.
Major addition The donated material forms a major addition to the Alaska Geologic Materials Center's collection and supplements the required samples that the companies had previously submitted through the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
“This is an important contribution because of the quantity and quality of rock samples provided,” said Mark Myers, director of the Division of Oil and Gas. “Previously, only limited amounts of rock from these areas were available through the GMC. Having the full core samples provides a vastly better picture of the stratigraphy of the represented areas. This donation makes additional data available to other companies without the cost of drilling exploratory wells.”
With samples from more than 300 wells and numerous exploration field surveys around the state, the rocks should prove an invaluable research tool.
“Our goal is to facilitate learning and to stimulate oil and gas exploration and development by other companies,” Chris West, BP's S Pad project leader at Milne Point, said. “Putting these materials into the public domain will benefit resource agencies, the educational system and other companies interested in developing Alaska's oil and gas resources.”
Alaska's rock archive The Alaska Department of Natural Resources operates the Alaska Geologic Materials Center in cooperation with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Minerals Management Service. The center contains a major archive and library of Alaska rock samples and holds an almost complete collection of core and drill-cutting samples from oil and gas wells drilled in Alaska and on the Alaska outer continental shelf. The collection at the center also includes numerous microscope slides from well samples and many thousands of rock samples from the mining industry.
The center provides invaluable reference material for people exploring or doing research in Alaska — people can examine rock samples without incurring the time and cost of travelling to the field or drilling wells. Industry scientists average more than 400 visits per year to the center, while government and academic scientists also make extensive use of the facility.
The Department of Natural Resources has estimated an acquisition cost of hundreds of millions of dollars for the material in the center.
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