Regulatory and fiscal stability are key
to vibrant resource industry
It’s a new day on the North Slope despite the challenges that come with operating in the Arctic – high costs, harsh weather, supply chain issues, legal hurdles and struggles to find adequate financing.
For the first time in a long time North Slope production is projected to remain stable in the near term and increase in the late 2020s. This is excellent news for Alaska. Resource industries, particularly oil and gas, form the backbone of our economy. They are labor intensive, pay some of the best wages in the state and require continued capital investment to maintain or expand production levels. Production is key to jobs and revenue for Alaska.
We cannot control many of the challenges Arctic operations bring, but we can maintain stable tax policies that attract the capital needed to keep our resource industries healthy so they can produce jobs and revenues for Alaskans.
What’s at stake
$3.1B
State & Local Revenue
FY19
77,600
Alaskan Jobs Supported
Direct/Indirect
$549M
Grow the Permanent Fund
FY22 Dedicated Revenues to Corpus
$4.4B
Spending with Local Businesses
Annual
Source: “The Role of the Oil and Gas Industry in Alaska’s Economy,” January 2020, McKinley Research
Letter from the co-chairs
Fair and Competitive oil taxes are working
There is a resurgence in oil production and jobs in Alaska that is directly related to our current oil tax policy. SB 21, a fair and competitive tax policy, replaced the antiquated ACES tax structure that drove down petroleum investment for more than a decade. Thanks to SB 21, Alaskans have the greatest opportunity of our generation on the North Slope today.
Some present and former legislators argue that SB 21 was a mistake, but the facts speak for themselves.
The Willow and Pikka projects, years in the making, are in active development, with Pikka now expecting first production by the end of the year. These and other robust investments in Alaska’s future would not have occurred under the previous punitive tax regime. Between the Willow and Pikka projects alone, the oil and gas industry is spending over $10 billion in Alaska in the next few years, with each project generating 2,500 construction jobs and hundreds of operating jobs.
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Alaska’s three leading producers updated their company’s role in the renaissance now underway on the North Slope.
ConocoPhillips is continuing to invest some $1 billion per year in projects in its base business, Donald Allan, ConocoPhillips Asset Development Manager, told attendees at AOGA’s 2025 conference.
"Starting with our legacy business here in Kuparuk and Alpine, you see a combination of opportunities drilling from new pads and from existing pads," Allan said.
Nuna, located on the west side of the Kuparuk, achieved first oil ahead of schedule and under budget in December of last year. Kuparuk's West Sak development continues to deliver.
"We have about 110 wells with a strong record of production performance,” Allan said. "In 2024, we drilled four wells – the two producers are two of the top five producers in the state of Alaska."
Coyote is next up. It sits in the northwest corner of the Kuparuk River.
And Willow is on schedule in the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska to produce oil in 2029.
Hilcorp started off with Point Thomson on the east side of the North Slope. “It's quite a bit away from the main infrastructure on the North Slope and Prudhoe Bay and the greater Prudhoe Bay Area," said Daniel Donovan, Hilcorp Asset Team Leader.
Hilcorp plans to spend more than $180 million to drill Point Thomson’s first new well since 2017.
“It's going to be a transformative well for Point Thomson, which currently makes a little over 4000 barrels of oil per day,” Donovan said. Hilcorp expects some 6,000 bpd from the new well, possibly doubling the field's current production to more than 10,000 bpd. Drilling is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2026.
Hilcorp is planning new projects in the western part of the Prudhoe Bay unit.
“Project Taiga will consist of 22 producers and 29 injectors, two source wells, disposal wells and, when brought online, 25,000 bpd in Phase 1,” Donovan said, adding, "We expect to kick that off in 2027."
"There's a second phase, which would be right after we complete phase one, we call Greenfield Schrader development," Donovan said. "We're going to have to drill 51 wells; we're going to construct all the facilities from the ground up; we will have, at the end of phase two, potentially over 40,000 barrels a day coming online.
"The results we've seen at Milne Point have simply been amazing," he said, adding that after acquiring Milne Point, Hilcorp brought on Mouse Pad and Raven Pad, which are major pad developments like Project Taiga.
"We've tripled field production at Milne Point since we've taken over as operator," he said. "We've invested $2.5 billion in Milne Point so far.
“The big news from Santos is all the major equipment Pikka needs for first oil is now on-site,” said Pete Laliberte, Santos Vice President Business Development.
"This is our core development area, so when we sanctioned Pikka phase one, we sanctioned it in this core development area with our partner Repsol, a fantastic partner as we've moved along."
Laliberte said there are three “Pikkas” in its core area.
“There’s the Pikka development that we're doing right now, but we also have a unit called Horseshoe and a unit called Quokka," Laliberte said.
"In Quokka, we're drawing another appraisal well this winter, and those we see as having the potential for two more Pikkas."
Laliberte added that Santos has much more to come on the Slope.
"We've also got a major discovery in Lagniappe in the eastern North Slope and that's with our partners, APA corporation and Armstrong," he said. "And then finally we've got a big NPR-A position – probably a little bit longer term."
More here. www.petroleumnews.com/pnads/433158450.shtml
The Trans Alaska Pipeline is getting ready to turn 50 – and Alaska already has big plans for a celebration.
A commentary by University of Alaska Fairbanks Professor Philip Wight is now running in newspapers around the state and two special events are scheduled for September and October, with more to follow next year.
Wight writes that the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) “thoroughly remade Alaska — perhaps only World War II proved more transformative. TAPS was not simply a physical infrastructure that moved and monetized Arctic oil; it also constituted a turbulent historical process. The advent of TAPS created nothing less than a ‘new social order,’ according to journalist James Roscow.
“The controversy over constructing TAPS expedited and influenced the character of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), a historic piece of legislation which has had expansive social and economic effects. The pipeline boom nearly doubled Alaska’s population and changed the character and politics of those who lived here.
“This boom remade the physical environment — not only with a new highway to the Arctic Ocean and an 800-mile silver ribbon of steel, but also in the form of new skyscrapers in Anchorage and more than half of all homes built in Alaska. It brought tremendous new wealth, transforming Alaska from one of the poorest to one of the richest states in the nation,” he writes.
“The advent of TAPS also mobilized Alaskans to save some of their oil wealth and invest in renewable resources. Alaskans reacted to the turmoil of the pipeline boom in 1974 by electing a Republican conservationist (that rarest of endangered species) named Jay Hammond to the highest office in the Great Land. Under Hammond’s leadership, Alaskans created the Permanent Fund — the single most important development of Alaska’s oil age — and worked to invest one-time oil dollars into renewable resource projects, from fisheries to hydropower to agriculture. Yet Alaskan politicians (including Hammond, to his great regret) also voted to eliminate the income tax and allow government to be almost singularly dependent on a single resource flowing through a single pipeline.”
Wight’s complete commentary here. www.adn.com/opinions/2025/09/08/opinion-the-trans-alaska-pipeline-at-50-what-weve-learned-and-wha...
Here's a link to a video Alyeska Pipeline Service Company produced for the pipeline’s 40th anniversary. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dw_E5XJzps
The Alaska Historical Society (AHS) plans two events this year.
Sept. 24 and 27 – AHS will discuss the 50th Anniversary during its annual meeting at the University of Alaska Fairbanks: alaskahistoricalsociety.org/about-ahs/conference/
Oct. 2, AHS is organizing an event in Fairbanks on the anniversary of the completion of the Yukon River Bridge: members.alaskaalliance.com/events/details/yukon-river-bridge-50th-anniversary-3436?calendarMonth=...
Fifty-seven years after the first discovery well was drilled, Prudhoe Bay is on track for a new pad to tap new production.
Originally estimated to contain 25 billion barrels of oil in place, with about 13 billion barrels considered recoverable, the field has produced around 10 billion barrels, with billions more still in the ground.
Hilcorp North Slope, operator of the giant field, is seeking authorization to build yet another oil and gas production pad to use extended reach drilling to access undeveloped oil reserves in the Schrader Bluff reservoir. The company says it wants to drill approximately 60 new wells, including 27 production wells, 27 injection wells, four water wells, and two disposal wells, according to Petroleum News.
The Schrader Bluff formation is estimated to contain approximately 2 billion barrels of oil, but it’s s located in shallow, unconsolidated sands and is considered heavy and viscous, presenting technical and commercial challenges for production.
Omega Pad is west of L Pad, currently the most western Prudhoe Bay pad, 23 miles northwest of the Deadhorse Airport.
Ice road construction and mining operations are anticipated to begin in December. Pad and access road construction would begin in January 2026 and be complete by April 2026.
Pipeline construction is anticipated to occur over the following winter ice road season, from February 2027 to April 2027. The pad is anticipated to be operational in December 2027.
More here: www.petroleumnews.com/pnads/558601727.shtml.
The mission of KEEP Alaska Competitive is to promote and preserve competitive, fair and stable taxes on Alaska’s resource industries to enhance investment, jobs and production to secure Alaska’s long term economic future.
Keep Alaska Competitive Coalition Board of Directors:
- Jim Jansen, Lynden, Inc.
- Joe Schierhorn, Northrim Bank
- Bill Corbus
- Aaron Schutt, Doyon, Lmtd.
- Dave Karp, Saltchuk
- Gary Dixon, Alaska Teamsters Union
- Vic Angoco, Matson
- Harry McDonald
- Jon Cook
- Elizabeth Stevens, Executive Director