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Two day conference produces surprising request
Patricia Jones
Some 125 representatives of industry, government and academia gathered April 11-12 in Fairbanks to brainstorm ways research can help to break through barriers that hinder development of Alaska’s oil, gas and coal resources.
“The aim of this workshop was to identify and prioritize the research energy needs that the University of Alaska Fairbanks can jointly work with the industry for the benefit of Alaska,” said Dr. Godwin Chukwu, chair of the energy workshop planning committee and a petroleum engineering professor at UAF.
Industry and government research representatives presented information about global natural resources, Alaska’s current role in providing energy and barriers to development.
Topics included the proposed natural gas pipeline, development of viscous oil, identification and possible use of “unconventional” gas and increased use of Alaska’s coal resources. Targets for researchers Using a brainstorming method called “road mapping,” participants listed barriers, ranging from technological to permitting to public policy issues for oil, gas and coal, listed research and development efforts that could help mitigate those problems and set priorities.
“We recognized that we were not a demographic sample of Alaska — we’re heavily weighted in the technology sector,” said Scott Digert of BP Exploration.
Both the oil and the gas groups cited public policy issues and information sharing and data distribution as development barriers.
“A really common theme throughout all our discussions was information sharing subjects. We felt like even though we have been in the business for 25 years, as an industry in Alaska, we’ve done a very poor job of transferring technology among agencies, industry and the academia environment,” said Steve Bross, Phillips Alaska’s satellite development supervisor at Kuparuk. “We’ve tended to act very isolated on the North Slope, and that’s a detriment to us.”
“We can set up a database collection and be a custodian of data,” said Chukwu. “The only surprise is that some people would like us to concentrate on policy issues, but that is not what the University is for.” Independent source of information? Participants in the gas group discussed the need for an independent information source for energy resource issues, suggesting that the university might be able to fulfill that role.
“While it’s not a research and development need, the university might be able to act as an honest broker of information, as it is viewed as difficult to get information that isn’t spun by big oil companies or by the environmental perspective,” said Digert, in the gas group’s presentation. “Someone like the university could be viewed as an honest broker of unspun information.”
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