DOG releasing more exploration data

On Aug. 16 Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas announced that within 30 days it would release to the public more seismic and well data that is being made available in conjunction with the state’s oil and gas tax credit program. The tax credit statutes require a company to submit data from exploration seismic surveying or drilling to the division if the company used a tax credit in support of the activity. The division has to hold seismic data confidentially for 10 years and well data for two years, after which time the data become public.

The data now being released include data from two 3-D seismic surveys conducted in the northern part of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska: the Northeast NPRA survey, and the Puviaq South survey. Central North Slope surveys consist of the Storms 3-D survey, the Toolik 2-D survey, the Harrison Bay 3-D survey and the White Hills 2-D survey. The division is also releasing the Cosmopolitan offshore 3-D seismic survey from the Cook Inlet, and data from the Cosmopolitan State No. 1 well.

The work involved in uploading, collating, quality controlling and making available for release the massive volume of data from tax-credit-related seismic surveys has become a major operation for the division. The Alaska Department of Revenue has also been engaged in a major exercise of auditing and verifying the tax credit status of the data.

- ALAN BAILEY