BP to spend $1 billion in Alaska’s North Slope

[TexasTowelie]

WASHINGTON — BP is set to announce Monday that it will sink $1 billion into revving up crude production from Alaska’s declining North Slope, weeks after the state decided to give the oil industry a $750 million annual tax cut.

The British oil giant plans to add two drilling rigs to its Prudhoe Bay field, bringing the count up to nine, the highest in about six years. New well work and drilling, along with upgrades of existing facilities, could support 200 new jobs, the company said.

Separately, with the agreement of its working interest partners at Prudhoe Bay, including ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil Corp., BP will begin evaluating another $3 billion in additional development projects in the field’s west end.

The prospective development could include the construction of drilling pads and expansion of existing ones, possibly facilitating the drilling of more than 110 wells, following two to three years of appraisal and engineering work.

More at http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/06/02/bp-to-spend-1-billion-in-alaskas-north-slope-2/ .

[Arctic Dave]

1. Meh. Not a big deal.

It is part of their normal operating cost and is not part of any development of new fields.

But hey, it looks good in a headline.

Les gara has it right, this is just fluff to try and keep their billion dollar give away and screw the Alaskan people.