Trump Wants to Expand Drilling in Alaskan Oil Reserve

[thackney]

Trump Wants to Expand Drilling in Alaskan Oil Reserve
https://www.rigzone.com/news/wire/trump_wants_to_expand_drilling_in_alaskan_oil_reserve-20-nov-2018-157529-article/

 The Trump administration is moving to expand the territory open for oil exploration in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, a process that could shift drilling rigs closer to herds of caribou and flocks of threatened birds.

With a notice scheduled to be released Tuesday, the Interior Department is taking the first formal step toward rewriting a five-year-old Obama administration management plan that put roughly half of the 22.1-million-acre reserve off limits. The new management plan will reflect “exciting new discoveries” and advances in technology, said Joe Balash, assistant secretary of the Interior for land and minerals management.

“Some of the acreage that is probably most prospective is currently not available for leasing under the plan; we want to take a look at some of those areas,” Balash told reporters in a conference call. “We think it’s time to reevaluate some of the areas that were previously left unavailable for leasing, as well as open up avenues for infrastructure to be installed -- both pipelines and, potentially, roads.”

The effort responds to complaints from oil companies and state officials that the Obama administration’s plan was overly restrictive, blocking drilling in promising areas while hampering the construction of pipelines across the reserve. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke last year issued a directive ordering up a new management plan that “strikes an appropriate balance” of promoting development while protecting other resources.

The Interior Department now will consider options for opening new areas to oil leasing and examine current plan boundaries designed to protect ecologically sensitive habitat in the reserve. The agency said it also would weigh changes to conditions required of oil companies doing business in the reserve while developing management goals that are “environmentally responsible” and respect traditional uses of the land....

[thackney]

Formerly known as the Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4, the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska is now a vast 22.1-million acre area on Alaska's North Slope. In 1923, mindful of the land's conceivable petroleum value, President Harding set aside this area as an emergency oil supply for the U.S. Navy. In 1976, in accordance with the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act, the administration of the reserve was transferred to the Department of the Interior, more specifically the Bureau of Land Management, and was renamed to what is now known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A).

[thackney]

Nanushuk discoveries prompt Interior to reopen NPR-A plan
http://www.alaskajournal.com/2018-11-20/nanushuk-discoveries-prompt-interior-reopen-npr-plan#.W_Ro8ehKg2w

...alash indicated that the emergence of the Nanushuk geologic formation since the last plan was written — the primary source for two discoveries with the potential to produce upward of 100,000 barrels per day each — as well as advances in drilling technology make it an appropriate time to rewrite the federal land-use plan.

One of those discoveries, ConocoPhillips’ Willow prospect, is in the eastern part of the NPR-A. BLM is in the early stages of an EIS for the $4 billion to $6 billion Willow project.

Balash said rewriting the NPR-A Integrated Activity Plan should take about a year or a little longer.

“We’ll let the information that comes in and the comments we get from our stakeholders and cooperators help guide our decisions but we’re pretty excited about this,” he said.

The most prospective Nanushuk area, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, is in the northeast portion of the NPR-A around Teshekpuk Lake that was made off-limits to oil and gas leasing in the 2013 plan.

Last December the USGS dramatically increased its mean recoverable oil estimate for the reserve to nearly 8.7 billion barrels.

[thackney]

Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources in the Cretaceous
Nanushuk and Torok Formations, Alaska North Slope, and Summary of
Resource Potential of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, 2017
https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2017/3088/fs20173088.pdf

Assessed mean resources for the six AUs in the Nanushuk
and Torok Formations are 8,727 MMBO, or 8.7 billion barrels
of oil, and 24,545 billion cubic feet of recoverable gas (BCFG),
or 25 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas, which includes
6,992 BCFG of associated gas and 17,553 BCFG of nonassociated
gas (table 2).

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources in the Cretaceous
Nanushuk and Torok Formations, Alaska North Slope, and Summary of
Resource Potential of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, 2017
https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2017/3088/fs20173088.pdf

Assessed mean resources for the six AUs in the Nanushuk
and Torok Formations are 8,727 MMBO, or 8.7 billion barrels
of oil, and 24,545 billion cubic feet of recoverable gas (BCFG),
or 25 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas, which includes
6,992 BCFG of associated gas and 17,553 BCFG of nonassociated
gas (table 2).

that's a lot of oil and gas there.  Good to see us getting after it in the frozen north.

Unsure how many other ventures are being pursued by American companies in the frozen north (I don't think there are many outside of around the North Slope) so it is strategic to remain knowledgeable in advancing techniques in these environs so we remain competitive in basins which, along with the ultradeep oceans, the last bastion where massive accumulations may be found in the future.

[thackney]

that's a lot of oil and gas there.  Good to see us getting after it in the frozen north.

Unsure how many other ventures are being pursued by American companies in the frozen north (I don't think there are many outside of around the North Slope) so it is strategic to remain knowledgeable in advancing techniques in these environs so we remain competitive in basins which, along with the ultradeep oceans, the last bastion where massive accumulations may be found in the future.

Smaller operations also around the Cook Inlet.  But no others.

https://ie.gis.connect.bakerhughes.com/rigcountweb/default2.aspx

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Smaller operations also around the Cook Inlet.  But no others.

https://ie.gis.connect.bakerhughes.com/rigcountweb/default2.aspx

Yeah, am thinking of our competition from Russia on exploring and developing the artic.

[thackney]

Yeah, am thinking of our competition from Russia on exploring and developing the artic.

Where the Arctic Oil Industry Is Booming
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-11-20/the-poker-aces-playing-a-key-hand-in-the-5-trillion-etf-market

...The Barents Sea off Norway’s northern tip is different.

Norwegian authorities expect companies including Lundin Petroleum AB and OMV AG to drill a record 15 wells in the Barents this year. Statoil ASA’s Songa Enabler, a floating drilling machine the size of two football fields, is in the vanguard of those efforts as it embarks on a five-well exploration campaign....