The company received formal award notice on July 15, 2026, from the State of Alaska for 14 leases covering 34,301 net acres, consisting of 16,507 acres at South Prudhoe and 17,794 acres at Kad River East.
88 Energy reports increased Alaska oil resources, plans 2027 drilling
Investing.Com, July 22, 2026
88 Energy Limited reported a 35% increase in prospective oil resources at its South Prudhoe project and outlined plans for exploration drilling in early 2027, according to a company statement released Tuesday.
The company’s South Prudhoe total gross unrisked 2U prospective resources increased to 768.9 million barrels of oil, with 640.7 million barrels net to 88 Energy. The Augusta-1 exploration well is designed to test up to 133.7 million barrels of gross unrisked 2U prospective resources across three reservoir intervals.
88 Energy secured Nordic Rig-3 and an Arctic-rated camp with capacity for 58 personnel for the planned Augusta-1 exploration well. The company indicated the planned first quarter 2027 spud remains subject to securing appropriate funding and completion of required permitting.
The company received formal award notice on July 15, 2026, from the State of Alaska for 14 leases covering 34,301 net acres, consisting of 16,507 acres at South Prudhoe and 17,794 acres at Kad River East.
DEMOCRAT NEGOTIATORS TALK PERMITTING:
We’re about 105 days out from the midterm elections and a bipartisan deal on permitting reform is feeling further out of reach. To find out more about where negotiations are in the Senate, Callie spoke with the top two Democrats in the upper chamber that are leading discussions in the Environment and Public Works and Energy and Natural Resources Committees.
Leadership in the Senate is pushing to reach a deal before the August recess, which will mark about one year since the House first introduced its own legislation to streamline the federal permitting process (Remember Rep. Bruce Westerman’s SPEED Act, passed in December?).
The Senate can’t afford that same timeline, as pressure from the midterms threatens Democratic support – they are not likely to advance a Republican-led package if they take back one of the chambers. So it’s up to Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico to ensure the final deal includes as many of their priorities as possible.
“It’s complicated,” Heinrich told Callie when asked why no text has been released by the Senate. “I mean, there’s just a lot of moving parts, and we’re trying to thread the needle between different policy priorities, and so it takes time.”
While no overarching agreement has been made yet, he said, conversations “continue to be constructive.”
Whitehouse told Callie that it’s key for the final deal to be balanced. If any sections lean too far in one direction, he warned, it could send a “historic message” on where the balance of the bill ends up.
He said that, until that balance is struck between Republicans and Democrats, it is important to keep all details in negotiation.
He did say that a large part of the permitting package will address streamlining federal approvals for transmission – something Democrats have long advocated in order to accelerate the connection of renewable energy projects to the grid.
“That’s the part that we still need to work on,” he said.
Whitehouse also praised his Republican counterpart, EPW Chairwoman Shelley Moore Capito, saying she “continues to be a good partner.”
“We continue to make progress through the issues, and I continue to bug my staff to see what they can get done by the August recess,” he said.
From the Washington Examiner, Daily on Energy, July 21, 2026
Juneau cannot demand both. So let’s slow down and look at the record.
More Gas, or More Taxes
Kevin McCabe, July 18, 2026
If you’ve followed the news this year, you’ve heard two arguments coming out of Juneau. One says Cook Inlet producers aren’t doing enough to keep Southcentral Alaska supplied with natural gas. The other says those same producers should pay a new 9.4 percent state income tax.
What you may not have noticed is that both arguments come from the same corner of the Capitol. For years, some of the loudest voices demanding that the “Texas billionaire” pay more in taxes have also demanded that his company drill more wells in Cook Inlet.
Those two positions cannot both be good policy. Can Alaska demand more gas from Cook Inlet while raising the cost of producing it?
In June 2023, Sen. Bill Wielechowski wrote state officials arguing that Cook Inlet’s biggest producer had failed to meet its obligation to explore and develop the basin and suggested the company could face litigation. In August 2024, he joined Sen. Cathy Giessel in asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate that same company, after earlier letters urging Alaska’s Attorney General to do the same. Whether through committee hearings, public letters, or interviews with the press, the message never changed. The companies operating in Cook Inlet should be doing more.
The State looked into it. The Department of Natural Resources answered that after more than a decade of monitoring, it is confident Hilcorp is meeting its lease obligations, and it warned against inviting federal regulators to second-guess Alaska.
In 2023, Sen. Wielechowski introduced legislation extending Alaska’s corporate income tax to privately held S corporations that do not pay it today. By every account, it was aimed at the very producer he wanted drilling more wells. That bill failed. In 2024, he inserted the same language into the Governor’s carbon storage bill. That failed too. This session, a stand-alone S corporation tax bill has been sitting in the Senate Rules Committee for more than a year. Instead of moving that bill on its own merits, the Senate attached the tax to the gasline tax restructuring bill, the one piece of legislation Alaska needs most. That decision has already consumed two special sessions, drawn a veto threat from the Governor, and triggered a third special session. As the Senate passed it in June, Sen. Wielechowski’s parting words to House members who objected were, “Go ahead. Vote for the Texas billionaire.”