The discussion of tapping approximately 1 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil in the Cook Inlet by 2018 is continuing; DNR Deputy Commissioner Ed Fogels spoke with us during the Industry Outlook Forum.
Fogels: “At this point we’re supportive of BOEM going forward with that lease sale, we look forward to working with BOEM to make sure that lease sale is structured properly and I think as we heard today in this forum, we need to find more gas and more oil.”
Dr. James Kendall with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management was in Kenai for a scoping meeting in November.
Dr. Kendall: “If there were to be a lease sale and if a company were to bid and successfully get a lease, then you would go to the exploration phase, where you would have an exploration well drilled to see if this estimate is actually real. Then after that they could submit, if they chose to, a development plan on exactly how they would develop that area, and that would tell how many wells would be drilled, how many platforms could be needed, how many ships would be involved, all of those would involve employees and people. That would give folks an idea, if a company moved ahead with development after the exploratory phase just how many jobs would be created by it.”
The public comment on that proposed sale closed December 8 and the draft Environmental Impact Statement is now being worked on.
