Kustatan News

Southcentral Alaska's cold winter has created a challenge for oil production in Cook Inlet, with ice conditions in the inlet restricting tankers from accessing the offloading terminal at Drift River.

By the time this edition of Petroleum News hits the Web on May 20, Cook Inlet Energy will either have oil production restored from the Osprey platform's Redoubt Shoal field, or be within days of doing so.

Cook Inlet Energy rose from the ashes of Pacific Energy. When California independent Pacific Energy filed for bankruptcy in 2009, several of its executives started Cook Inlet Energy to buy the assets.

Pacific Energy's abandoned assets need 'winterizing' to stave off problems, preserve value; cost could range up to $200,000 Wesley Loy Alaska officials have hired two oilfield contractors to 'winterize' Cook Inlet wells a California oil and gas producer recently abandoned as part of a liquidation plan in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Crude oil production in the Cook Inlet region has long been on the decline, but could recent events be signaling the end is coming sooner rather than later? The eruption of Mount Redoubt earlier this spring may have proven to be a catalyst when mudflows from melting glacial ice caused a shut down of the Drift River Oil Terminal.