Today’s Key Takeaways: Alaska celebrates 67 years of the Swanson Oilfield discovery. Just another temporary delay to responsible resource development by Judge Gleason. AK’s first commercial use of a drone in oil and gas industry. U.S. has second-longest mine development time in the world.
NEWS OF THE DAY:
In 1955 the southern California-based Richfield Oil (which in 1966 merged with east coast Atlantic Refining to become Atlantic Richfield Company, or ARCO) sent geologists Bill Bishop and Ray Arnett to explore for oil on the 50,000 acres it had leased on, what was then the Kenai National Moose Range, now the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. At that point, oil companies had drilled 165 consecutive unsuccessful oil wells in the state.
On July 19, 1957, Bishop and Arnett drilled a successful oil well at Swanson River, in the northwest Kenai Peninsula. Their announcement of the well on July 23 set off a flurry of economic activity that some compared to the gold rush.
This discovery of oil north of Sterling at Swanson River provided, according to Alaska’s first governor William Egan, “the economic justification for statehood for Alaska.”
OIL:
US judge suspends Alaska Cook Inlet lease, pending additional environmental reviewBecky Bohrer, AP, July 18, 2024
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — An environmental review underpinning a 2022 oil and gas lease sale in Alaska failed to properly analyze the potential impacts on endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales, a federal judge has ruled in suspending the lone lease stemming from that sale.
U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason, in a decision Tuesday, found the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management failed in its analysis of the impact of ship noise on Cook Inlet beluga whales, which are listed as protected under the Endangered Species Act.
She also found problematic the agency’s lumping together of the beluga whales and other marine mammals when weighing cumulative impacts, noting that the Cook Inlet belugas “have been impacted differently than other marine mammals in Cook Inlet by past actions” and that the agency should have considered cumulative impacts of leasing activities on them separately.
Gleason, who is based in Alaska, declined to vacate the lease sale, as the conservation groups who sued over the sale had requested. Instead, she suspended the lease issued in the sale pending a supplemental environmental review that addresses the issues she identified.
GAS:
Drone test flight a 1st for Alaska oil and gas
The drone could perform deliveries to and from Cook Inlet platforms
Spectators gathered at Furie Operating Alaska’s central processing facility in Nikiski last week, on July 10, to witness a test flight for what engineers called the first commercial use of a drone by the oil and gas industry in Alaska. The aircraft flew beyond visual line of sight from Nikiski to a platform in Cook Inlet and returned with cargo.
Furie says the technology may allow for routine deliveries to and from the platforms at reduced cost and increased human safety.
The drone has a wingspan of a few feet, weighs about 55 pounds and flies around 60-70 miles per hour. It performs vertical takeoff and landing using propellers before converting in the air to a fixed-wing aircraft.
The test flight tasked the aircraft with flying around 17 miles, taking around 30 minutes in both directions.
JR Ancheta, project manager at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration, said the drone can fly for around five to seven hours powered by both battery and gas tank. To accommodate Alaska’s cold temperatures, it charges its battery while flying.
“It’s a pretty neat machine,” he said.
Furie is owned by HEX Cook Inlet. The company’s facility in Nikiski is connected by a 15-mile pipeline to a platform in the inlet. At the facility, natural gas is taken in via the pipeline and is processed by removing water vapor. Then, it’s sold to utilities on the Kenai Peninsula and Alaska’s Railbelt.
MINING:
From our friends at the National Mining Association:
A recent report by S&P Global reveals that the U.S. has the second longest mine development time in the world, at almost 29 years on average from first discovery to first production. Only Zambia takes longer (34 years). In contrast, Canada and Australia, America’s main peers in terms of mineral resources and mining regulations, take 27 and 20 years, respectively.
What you need to know:
- S&P Global developed a report that compares mine development times in America to that of Canada, Australia, and other nations. The results do not paint a positive picture of the U.S.
- At 29 years on average, the U.S. now has the second longest mine development time in the world – with only Zambia taking longer.
- The U.S. has more than enough minerals to secure our supply chains and help us – and the world – meet our mineral needs, but we must streamline our circuitous permitting process to allow us to access them.