Kristen Nelson

Alaska North Slope crude oil production averaged 467,922 barrels per day in July, up 1 percent from a June average of 463,289 bpd.

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority will keep Fairbanks Natural Gas management in place as it works toward expanding natural gas service in the Fairbanks-North Pole area.

Division of Oil and Gas Director Corri Feige said after the sale that the division had to go back to 2009, when oil prices were in the $60 per barrel range, to find a comparable low rate of bidding in a Cook Inlet areawide sale.

Alaska North Slope crude oil production started September at 359,150 barrels but ended the month at 533,561 barrels, a clear indication that the summer maintenance season has wound down and production levels are getting back to a seasonal norm.

In a sealed bid, Cook Inlet Energy committed to spend $1,501,000 over four years for an exploration license on 168,581 acres of state land on and offshore the Iniskin Peninsula in Southwest Cook Inlet.

With the completion of scheduled summer maintenance on Alaska's North Slope, crude oil production was up 29.5 percent in September from August.

Alaska North Slope gas could fuel electric power generation in Fairbanks by 2015 if a proposal by Golden Valley Electric Association continues to move forward. The project proposes to use natural gas to produce liquefied natural gas on the North Slope, which would then be trucked to Fairbanks.

A combination of increasing electric rates at Fort Richardson and a requirement that the Anchorage Regional Landfill flare methane gas generated by garbage has produced a project to use landfill gas to produce electricity for Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson near Anchorage.

Southcentral Alaska's first utility-scale wind project is expected to begin producing power this September, Ethan Schutt, Cook Inlet Region Inc. senior vice president, land and energy development, told the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce June 25.

BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. and Conoco Phillips Alaska told the Senate Resources Committee there are projects the companies could do on Alaska's North Slope to increase oil production, but those projects will have trouble attracting capital investment because of high state taxes.

The volume of North Slope crude oil production may be going down but prices are going up and that means higher state oil revenues.

With the exception of Endicott and Northstar, production at all Alaska North Slope oil fields was up in September over August. And August production was up over July as scheduled maintenance projects wound up.

The Bureau of Land Management, responding to instructions from President Barack Obama in May, will hold a National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska lease sale late this year and thereafter will hold annual NPR-A lease sales.