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Source: Alaska Journal of Commerce, AnchorageDec.儲存 12--Renewed oil and gas investment in Cook Inlet has temporarily stabilized the Southcentral energy picture and Hilcorp Energy LLC Midstream Alaska Vice President Kurt Gibson laid out his company's view of what must happen to ensure a stable future at a Dec. 6 Commonwealth North meeting.State investment incentives have helped push Hilcorp and other companies to increase activity in Cook Inlet, Gibson said. Oil production on Hilcorp's properties is up 66 percent year-to-date, he said."I think most people looked at Cook Inlet as a depleted, dead oil basin and certainly from the perspective of Jeff Hildebrand, the guy that runs our company, that's not the case," Gibson said.Overall Inlet oil production was at 16,247 barrels per day in August 2013, up 32 percent year-over-year, according to the state Revenue Department. Hilcorp currently produces about 37,000 combined oil and gas barrels per day using an industry standard 6-to-1 gas equivalent ratio, Gibson said.From 2012-13 Houston-based Hilcorp acquired oil and gas parcels from Chevron Corp. and Marathon Oil Co. in Cook Inlet. Last July, within months after finalizing the purchase of its assets from Marathon, Hilcorp announced agreements with regional utilities to supply them with roughly 100 billion cubic feet, or bcf, of natural gas through the first quarter of 2018.Gibson said Hilcorp's consent decree with the state is good through 2017 and that it affected the length of the supply contracts. It was then decided gas supply contracts shouldn't end in the middle of winter and they were extended to early 2018, he said."We're ready to start having conversations with folks about 2018 and beyond when they're ready to do that," Gibson said.About $100 million of the $300 million worth of capital investment the company has planned for Cook Inlet in 2014 would go towards gas production, he said. In 2013 Hilcorp invested $300 million in the Inlet, making it the region's largest investor, he said."Ramping up investment has the desired effect," Gibson said. "It's not rocket science -- you've got to turn the bit to the right in order to make gas come out of the rocks and we've been able to do that."The independent company is able to get productio迷你倉 out of waning oil and gas fields that wouldn't move the "economic needle" for major industry companies, he said.In January, Hilcorp plans to begin talks with stakeholders in its Inlet gas pipeline system about the best way to simplify the pipeline grid, Gibson said. Hilcorp's pipelines include the Kenai-Kachemak, Kenai-Nikiski, Marathon Beluga and Cook Inlet gas gathering systems. Consolidating the pipeline system is a way to reduce overhead and regulatory burden for the companies that transport gas in it, he said.The goal is to limit regulatory rate cases to once every four years, but Gibson said no action would be taken without having everybody involved in agreement."We're not going to go through an arduous and uncivil (regulatory) process like those that have happened in the past," he said.The initial hope is to have approval from the Regulatory Commission of Alaska to make changes to the pipeline system by fall 2014, Gibson said.Hilcorp has tried to strengthen the relationship between Southcentral producers and utilities, he said, by opening up a "candid" dialogue with its customers.Longer term, Gibson said Hilcorp would welcome new markets for Cook Inlet natural gas. He noted that the mothballing of the Agrium Inc. fertilizer plant and ConocoPhillips liquefied natural gas export facility at Nikiski has capped gas demand at the roughly 90 bcf per year utilities need. That demand limit is something that also limits price and investment, Gibson said."Reserve numbers are also a direct consequence of price. Some reserves exist at certain price levels and when the price levels go up reserves that were otherwise technically but not economically recoverable suddenly become economically recoverable," he said.An LNG export facility that allows multiple producers to sell gas could lift the current demand and investment constraints in Cook Inlet, Gibson said.When asked if he felt Cook Inlet producers could also supply in Interior Alaska's gas demand, Gibson said, "Yes."Elwood Brehmer can be reached at elwood.brehmer@alaskajournal.com.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Alaska Journal of Commerce (Anchorage, Alaska) Visit the Alaska Journal of Commerce (Anchorage, Alaska) at .alaskajournal.com Distributed by MCT Information Services儲存倉