Alaska

The US Department of Justice and the Alaska Department of Law recently closed federal and legal actions against ExxonMobil Corp. and its corporate predecessors involving the 1989 crude oil spill from the Exxon Valdez oil tanker.

Oil quality and drilling-pad constraints for a viscous-oil field defined a development scheme that consisted of a waterflood line drive with horizontal producers and water-injection (WINJ) wells side by side.

A common problem in oil and gas wells is excess free gas or water production from only certain portions of the completed interval.

Conventional drilling through lower intermediate intervals in the southern portion of the Alpine field on Alaska’s North Slope has posed significant challenges.

In June, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued the first approval for the overland use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Alaska.

The industry’s experience thus far drilling offshore the Arctic is a powerful argument to build a new generation of vessels and drilling rigs purpose built for operations in heavy ice.