Posted on 01/28/2009 5:16:32 AM PST by thackney
A partial truce was reached Tuesday in the bitter legal battle for control of a rich but dormant North Slope oil and gas field, as state officials reversed course and gave Exxon Mobil Corp. permission to proceed with a drilling campaign.
Exxon and its partners had been on lockout status after regulators took away their leases on state land in the 106,201-acre Point Thomson field due to lack of development over three decades.
Hoping to hang on to its leases, Exxon last year rolled out a plan to drill wells this winter and start producing by 2014 -- a plan state Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin rejected, saying he couldn't trust Exxon to carry it out.
On Tuesday, however, Irwin made a major policy reversal, issuing a conditional decision allowing Exxon to keep two of the 31 leases at issue on the company's promise to start drilling a pair of wells into those leases right away.
This morning, the state expects to issue Exxon a permit to construct a 50-mile ice road to the remote field on the Arctic Ocean shoreline east of Prudhoe Bay. The road is needed for hauling an enormous drilling rig to the site. The state previously had denied the permit to Exxon.
The Irwin decision has huge impact.
First, it likely means some production at long last will come from Point Thomson, a goal several Alaska governors had pursued mostly in vain ever since the field was discovered in 1977.
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
Text of the decision:
http://www.dog.dnr.state.ak.us/oil/programs/units/2009/pt_conditional_interim_decision_012709.pdf
The liquid condensate (natural gas liquids) of this field started to be referred to as oil by the media only after the state began trying to take back the leases.
Exxon’s Point Thomson will be North Slope’s first high-pressure condensate field
http://www.petroleumnews.com/pnads/70447496.shtml
November 18, 2001
The question is, why are we pursuing the oil in the most difficult of places when the Bakken Field of Montana and the Dakotas has more oil? Can anyone tell me a logical answer to this?
The United States has enough oil to be independent but we are being prevented from drilling for it. Who is reaping the windfall profits from relying on foreign oil?
But this field is also difficult (expensive) to produce and the wells are typically in the hundreds, not thousands, of barrels per day. This is not a place of gushers.
OK, I buy that, but I was reading a white paper recently that they are now using horizontal drilling where they can puncture several of the vertical stratas and make the drilling more economically feasible. We can produce technical items beyond comprehension, but we cant drill a hole in the ground??????????
The Bakken has been using the improvements in drilling technology to spend the last several years drilling in the Bakken.
Some of the locals are complaining that there are so many drill trucks they are tearing up the roads.
Downside of North Dakota oil boom
http://www.dl-online.com/articles/index.cfm?id=40919§ion=news
North Dakota has taken in enough money to be running on a surplus.
Energy Insider: ND Budget Surplus
http://www.kfyrtv.com/News_Stories.asp?news=26279
Did he not wait for the season to be nearly over before granting the permit. Did he not kill the work by delay?
Good post as always T. Maybe I read the article wrong, but Exxon seemed to be sitting on the Point Thomson rights and not producing, until now. Anywho, I am totally in favor of more oil production.
North Dakota Crude Oil Production
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/mcrfpnd2m.htm
It is a natural gas field, not an oil field.
As of today, there still isn't a natural gas pipeline and Point Thomson alone isn't big enough to justify one without the gas from other fields.
I think they certainly shortened the amount of time that drilling can be done this year by the delay.
Good info. Now why are the politicians and big oil trying to keep this such a secret?
It is no secret, but again, this field is doesn’t gushers.
“As of today, there still isn’t a natural gas pipeline and Point Thomson alone isn’t big enough to justify one without the gas from other fields.”
Looks like the state (Gov. Palin) is trying to generate more justification for their (her) gas pipeline. My first thoughts are that my personal interests come out in favor of it. I would like to keep the cost of heating my house and the price of fertilizer as low as possible.
Questions: Exon/Mobile is running an add on public television on a new process for retrieving enough gas to provide heating for a gazillion homes for many years. No details. Do you know what they are taking about? If so, what is it? Is it BS for the Volvo set or is it technically & economically feasible?
The taking back of the lease was started by her predecessor, Gov Murkowski. ExxonMobil hasn't been a saint in this either. They have spent some money exploring, but just barely the bare minimum required to keep the lease, until he decided it wasn't quite enough. They also have had many plans rejected by the state.
Sometimes I think Gov Frank Murkowski saw an opportunity to get a lot more money for the leases once the Natural Gas Pipeline looked like it was finally going to happen.
Exon/Mobile is running an add on public television on a new process for retrieving enough gas to provide heating...
Haven't seen it or read about it.
Sounds like their Advanced Gas Conversion Process or their Catalyst Coal Gasification Process.
No, it is basically a traditional gas field, although fairly high pressures, about 10,000 psi IIRC.
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