That's good news. I have not heard that yet but you seem to have some good contacts. At least two platforms were closed in - Baker and Dillon and other company's rigs too perhaps. Dillon is remob-ed for the summer.
When a plan is in place for who gets nat gas and when, it's serious.
Unocal was running running the platforms like a 3rd world outfit, no money to invest, spend only pennies to get what production they can. Chevron has bigger $'s to invest, and are looking long term. I don't recall when they did the recent seismic work, or more in depth analysis, but they see deeper structure that looks promising. They're bringing a rig in this summer to drill down to those prospects.
There's been lot of formations in the state that have been known about for decades, but couldn't be profitably produced at nominal $20/bbl oil. I don't know what they calculate nominal crude prices at for future prospects, but whatever it is, those fields that weren't profitable under the old calculations now pencil out to a tidy profit, and are going to be produced in the next 3,5, 10 years.
I would like to see the gas from Prdhoe brought to market as well, but again, now might not be the best time. What is seldom mentioned is that gas which is constantly re-injected into the resevoirs has aided in extracting out the majority of the oil up there.
