New teams in inlet oil, gas — Buccaneer, ConocoPhillips partner in North Cook Inlet Unit

Photo courtesy of the Homer Tribune. Buccaneer Energy’s jack-up rig Endeavour is seen in the Cosmopolitan Unit between Anchor Point and Whiskey Gulch last month.

By Naomi Klouda

Homer Tribune

Buccaneer Energy struck a deal with ConocoPhillips that greatly expands the Australian company’s holdings in Cook Inlet and moves a major back into higher profile in the inlet.

Buccaneer executed an agreement with ConocoPhillips that allows it the right to earn a 100 percent working interest in ConocoPhillips deep oil rights in 23,368 acres held by the North Cook Inlet Unit.

That’s a sizable unit that provides a “huge area to explore,” said Cathy Foerster, a commissioner at the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

This area has a long track record dating back to the 1960s. The oil is contained in the Lower Tyonek, Hemlock, Sunfish and West Foreland Formations. Since 1962 they have been penetrated by 13 wells, all of them in North Cook Inlet Unit, according to the historical portion of a press release issued Monday. Seven of the wells were drilled in the 1990s. The remaining six wells were drilled by various majors during the discovery and delineation phase of the Cook Inlet in the 1960s.

 Of the 13 wells drilled, a total of 10 wells were successfully flow tested.

“This could mean good news for more oil production and more revenue in Alaska,” Foerster said.

The NCIU has produced almost 1.9 trillion cubic feet of gas from the shallow Sterling and Beluga formations since the 1960s. Now the NCIU is currently held by gas production that has been predominantly used to supply ConocoPhillips’ 100 percent owned LNG facility. The shallow gas production will remain owned by ConocoPhillips. But oil drilling will be new to Buccaneer.

Bob Shavelson, public advocate at Cook Inletkeeper, sees the agreement as a sign that a major oil and gas company has moved back into the inlet. And that means the state needs to look at how it allows discharge of drilling wastes into the waters of Cook Inlet in the face of increased production.

“One of the rationales to continue the dumping in Cook Inlet when the EPA set these rules in 1996, was that Cook Inlet was a declining oil and gas province and they did not anticipate growth or new discharges,” Shavelson said. “Cook Inlet is the only coastal area where industry can discharge their drilling waste. The state carved out a loophole that didn’t anticipate this new interest.”

Jack-up rig off to new drilling endeavors

By Naomi Klouda

Homer Tribune

Now that the jack-up rig Endeavour moved Friday from the Homer Deep Water Dock, its owners will need to demonstrate its blowout defense system works after repairs and installation are complete.

Buccaneer Energy, owner of the rig, held the goal of getting to the Cosmopolitan site off Anchor Point in order to make these installations. It could not be done at the Homer dock, where it remained tied for seven months.

“They are getting the rig trimmed out, ready to go. We’ll go when they get it ready to demonstrate it is doing what it’s supposed to do,” said Cathy Forester, chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Buccaneer Energy received the Certificate of Compliance from the U.S. Coast Guard last week, just prior to its move. This certifies the rig is able to operate safely within U.S. waters.

But to be able to commence operations within Cook Inlet, the Endeavour rig must be inspected and certified by the AOGCC.

Dean Gallegos, Buccaneer director, outlines the timeline as preparing for the next level of approval from AOGCC’s visit to the rig.

AOGCC will return, “When the pressure control systems have been fully re-activated, which can only be completed once the Endeavour is at the Cosmopolitan location,” Gallegos said.

1st bill of session favors cruise ships

Photo courtesy of the Homer Tribune. The cruise ship Amsterdam visits Homer in a previous summer.

By Naomi Klouda

Homer Tribune

A measure of the Gov. Sean Parnell administration to roll back cruise ship wastewater standards was voted down by Homer’s Rep. Paul Seaton and voted up by Soldotna Sen. Peter Micciche.

House Bill 80 passed into law Feb. 19, in a Senate vote of 14-6. It effectively rolls back standards set in a ballot initiative passed by voters in 2006.

In voting against it when the bill was in the House, Seaton said he was concerned about the discharges that would be allowed in critical habitat areas, such as Kachemak Bay. He tried to gain protective amendments, but none of them passed.

“A large concern of mine about this bill was allowing the (Department of Environmental Conservation) to determine if they would permit pollution discharge levels that required a mixing zone in legislatively designated critical habitat areas like Kachemak Bay,” Seaton said.

A mixing zone is an area of water where pollutants from a point source discharge are mixed naturally with cleaner water. In the mixing zone, the level of toxic pollutants is allowed to be higher than the acceptable concentration for the general body of water. His amendments would have kept the higher standards before discharging in a critical habitat.

Seaton also asked for a reduction in the amount of acceptable copper, which harms a salmon’s ability to hone its way to home waters. And he wanted a prohibition of discharge within two miles of shore.

The legislation, already passed by the House, is the first bill to clear both the House and Senate in the 2013 legislative session that began just over a month ago.

Sen. Peter Micciche, R-District O, also had wanted an amendment to prohibit wastewater dumping in Kachemak Bay. In the end, he voted in favor of the measure.

Tackle the task — Fishing representatives mull changes to prevent repeat of poor 2012 season

By Jenny Neyman

File photos. Sockeye salmon wait to be picked from a set net in one of the few openings for east-side, Kenai-area Cook Inlet commercial set-net fishermen last summer.

Redoubt Reporter

There was no lack of data, analysis, statistical models, facts, figures and hypotheses presented at the second meeting of the Upper Cook Inlet Task Force on Jan. 14 at the Challenger Learning Center of Alaska in Kenai.

But for the six hours of answers and information, the main question driving the creation and effort of the task force remains unanswered: If the 2013 Kenai River king and sockeye runs shape up similarly to the 2012 returns, how can the disastrous fishing season that unfolded last year be avoided in the coming one?

While nothing has been settled yet, an answer is coming closer. Work this meeting was advanced by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s recent release of its new late-run Kenai River king salmon escapement goal, recommending 15,000 to 30,000 fish be spared from hooks and nets to get upriver to spawn.

The report still is in a draft form undergoing peer review and the revision process, and it’s only an interim figure to be used until the goal comes up for review and revision to the Alaska Board of Game in 2014, in accordance with its regular three-year cycle.

But it represents progress, especially in times of low abundance of kings, as has been the trend in recent years, said Robert Clark, chief fisheries scientist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, who gave a presentation on the updated escapement recommendation.

“We need to manage carefully because runs are going to be small in the near term — they just are, it’s a certainly. But this analysis is a breakthrough from our old assessment. Now I think we have a way forward,” he said.

The new goal was developed using king count estimates generated with DIDSON sonar technology, seen as far more accurate than the previously used target-strength estimates produced by split-beam sonar technology. Split beam has been shown to confuse smaller kings with sockeyes, especially when both fish are mixed together in the river. The previous goal range of 17,500 to 35,000 fish was developed using the old sonar estimates. The department switched to using DIDSON technology exclusively at the king sonar site at mile 8.6 last year, but was still using the old escapement goal. Now a DIDSON-based escapement will be tracked with DIDSON sonar.

Keeping better count of the fish is only part of the battle. Deciding how to manage fisheries is the other.

“This 15,000 is our best guess that balances the risk of the fisheries — keeping fisheries viable and going — and balancing that against the risk to the stock in terms of overfishing,” Clark said.

That balancing act was particularly difficult under a perfect storm of factors contributing to the maelstrom that became the 2012 Kenai River fishing season. A low early run of Kenai kings in June and poor returns of kings elsewhere in the state raised a red flag that the Kenai late run of kings might also be low. Further supporting that concern was a late arrival of the late run. Meanwhile, a robust return of sockeyes streamed into the river while kings were merely trickling in.

The result was restrictions in the sport and personal-use fisheries on retention of kings, then an all-out in-river closure on king fishing. That triggered a closure of the area’s commercial set-net fishery for sockeye, in order to prevent kings from getting caught in the commercial nets. When it became clear that kings were late more than nonexistent, governing management didn’t allow for creative solutions to address the unusual situation. Save for a few, mostly unproductive openings, the set-netters lost their season, sport fishermen lost much of their Kenai king fishing season and more sockeye than were desired made it upriver, all to protect kings that ended up making escapement.

“The problem with last year really wasn’t abundance, it was how the run showed up, and a lot of it showed up late. In those situations you try to do as a good a job as you can projecting those kinds of problems,” Clark said.

Casting about for answers — Kenai Peninsula Fishermen’s Association to host town hall-style meeting with Fish and Game commissioner

By Jenny Neyman

Photo by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. With plenty of time on their hands due to the commercial set-net fishing closures imposed by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in July, many set-netters, such as Aaron Kershner, a crewman for a Kasilof set-netter, protested the closure in front of the Fish and Game offices on Kalifornsky Beach Road.

Redoubt Reporter

The nets are back in storage, the boats are hauled ashore for winter and the sockeye salmon have pushed into the Kenai and Kasilof rivers to spawn. The 2012 Cook Inlet commercial sockeye fishing season is finished, yet east-side commercial sockeye set-net fishermen, and others affected by restrictions and closures of the Upper Cook Inlet salmon fisheries this summer, still have active questions regarding management of the fisheries, as well as what assistance might come from a federal disaster declaration of Alaska fisheries issued Sept. 13.

The Kenai Peninsula Fishermen’s Association is hosting a meeting Friday in hope of getting answers to those questions.

“This is for the community as a whole so anybody that has questions about economic relief or has questions about how the season went, or the future, and wants a chance to talk to the commissioner (of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game), this is what we’re offering,” said Paul Shadura, board director of the KPFA.

King salmon returns were low throughout several areas of the state this year, including to Cook Inlet. Fish and Game took a conservative approach to managing the area’s fisheries in order to preserve kings to help meet escapement goals in the Kenai and Kasilof rivers. Managers first enacted restrictions on in-river sport king fishing, then an all-out closure of in-river king fishing July 19. That triggered a caveat in the area’s king salmon management plan for a simultaneous closure of east-side commercial sockeye set-net fishing, to prevent the accidental mortality of kings that sometimes get caught in the set nets targeting sockeye salmon.

Though Fish and Game subsequently announced that the king run was late but not as drastically low as Fish and Game had thought it would be, that crumb of good news was too little, too late in the season for commercial set-net fishermen to salvage the fish and revenue they missed while their nets sat high and dry on the beach for all but a few openings in July.

The abysmal season left set-netters without revenue to pay their deckhands, fuel bills, site leases and other costs involved in commercial fishing, but with plenty of questions for Fish and Game, regarding the reliability of the department’s sonar king counting program, the wisdom of protecting kings to the point of allowing overescapement of sockeye by restricting commercial fishing, and many more.

“The department doesn’t seem to be willing to offer solutions and the commissioner is not willing to stand out on their own position and offer relief in-season using their authority, so then it comes into the political arena of the Board of Fish. The Board of Fish has its duties to allocate and set policies, and they’re supposed to be also concerned about conservation, which I’m sure they are, and development, which doesn’t seem to be a key consideration. I’m worried that it will be back in the political nature of the Board of Fish and less in the science-based accountability that’s required for good, sound fisheries management,” Shadura said.

Concern over invasive species surround Endeavour ceremony

By Naomi Klouda

Homer Tribune

Buccaneer Energy’s top official commemorated the work of the jack-up rig Endeavour on Tuesday morning as the “key” to unlock the future of Cook Inlet.

“Dream no small dreams for the lack the ability to stir man’s soul,” Chief Executive Officer Curtis Burton quoted, contending that it takes bold actions to make the nation’s big dreams of an energy independent future come to reality.

Buccaneer officials were in Homer on Tuesday to celebrate the arrival of the jack-up rig Endeavour. The ceremonial event included a blessing by Glacier Baptist Church’s Rev. Richard Wise that called for divine protection of the rig as it begins its work in Cook Inlet in a manner that protects the environment.

Remarks were brief since the event was postponed from Monday, due to travel difficulties from stormy weather.

“Buccaneer is evidence that we have shown up,” Burton said, noting that the Endeavour — Spirit of Independence was named by an Alaskan in a contest to find the rig’s name. It is named after Capt. James Cook’s ship that sailed up the inlet in 1778.

“We share your vision of creating an energy independent state. People will say the big oil and gas companies are all about profit. We are not that big company that would pledge profits above everything,” Burton said. “We want to make a pledge to the people of Alaska. Yes, we are here to find hydrocarbons. But profit is not a four-letter word.”

Profits make it possible to create jobs and pay taxes, he said.

“Without profits, none of this happens,” Burton said.

Caring for the environment comes in taking care of the hardware and the employees, Burton said.

“If you take care of your people and your hardware, they will take care of the environment,” he said.

Tours of five or six were then ushered aboard the Endeavour, with rules that no one could take photos.

“You can’t take anything off the rig,” cautioned public affairs spokesman Richard Loomis to the group. “There will be no cameras in the rain, while people are holding onto rails. If you slip, it will not be our fault.”

Safety lessons and a safety waiver needed to be signed to go aboard the rig.

Shell game — Study to create toxins baseline to limit mystery in harvesting clams, mussels

By Naomi Klouda

Photos by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. Rudy Bryant, of Bird Creek, scans the beach for signs of dimples while clamming just north of Clam Gulch last spring. Below, while most were small, there were numerous razor clams dug.

Homer Tribune

Among the reasons why people love the Kenai Peninsula in the summer, king salmon fishing gets most of the attention, but a less-discussed reason that packs peninsula highways are Cook Inlet’s rich clam beds.

Whether the shellfish from Ninilchik to Port Graham is safe from various levels of toxins, however, has never been extensively tested, until this summer.

Thanks to a three-year study and $120,000 awarded to the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve, shellfish on all the main beaches were tested in July and August and will continue to be tested for the next three years.

Terry Thompson, director of KBRR, said that the project is significant because, for the first time, the data will be collected into a baseline study that will serve for years to come. So far, so good — tests showed no significant levels in shellfish tested for paralytic shellfish toxins.

“Last spring, the (Department of Environmental Conservation) put out a call for proposals looking for three coastal communities to do a baseline study of PSP (paralytic shellfish poisoning) in recreationally harvested shellfish, because these aren’t tested in Alaska for toxins,” Thompson said. “The DEC will always tell people, ‘If you harvest shellfish, you do so at your own risk. To be safe, you need to buy them from a retail outlet that has their product tested.’ But thousands of people harvest shellfish in Alaska. The Legislature put some funds out to do an RFP (request for proposals).”

Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Environmental Health, solicited proposals from government organizations. KBRR was selected to conduct the program and commit to a three-year period of collaborative activities.

The partners are the Ninilchik Traditional Council, Port Graham Village Council, Seldovia Village Tribe and NOAA’s Kasitsna Bay Lab, the Department of Fish and Game in Homer, Nicki Scarzi and Kachemak Bay Wilderness Lodge.

“They all go out once a month during the highest tides from May to September to harvest shellfish,” Thompson said.

Endeavor jack-up rig docked for a week — Buccaneer’s plans involve East End Road, Kenai Loop and units in Cook Inlet

By Naomi Klouda

Photo courtesy of Naomi Klouda, Homer Tribune. The Endeavour jack-up rig sits docked in Homer Harbor while work is done to prepare it for drilling duty in Cook Inlet.

Homer Tribune

The Buccaneer Energy jack-up rig arrived in Kachemak Bay on Friday afternoon, and will remain here through Aug. 31 to have work done preparing the rig for work in Cook Inlet.

The Endeavor jack-up rig’s legs are 410 feet, or as high as a 28-story building, forming a highly noticeable presence in the bay.

City Manager Walt Wrede was notified that the Endeavor would need moorage for six days while preparatory work is being completed. It was to be moored to the Deep Water Dock on Monday night.

“It will be riding in on a large transport ship and then floated in the bay. The rig, when floated, will essentially be a barge,” Wrede said.  “It will be on top of a big transport vessel, then on Saturday morning, they will float it. It will be interesting to watch. What they do is the transport vessel sinks, and all you see is the wheelhouse. Then three tugs will pull the drill rig off the transport vessel.”

At the Deep Water Dock, Buccaneer will do retrofitting, electrical and plumbing work to get it ready for drilling.

“This will mean work for the marine trades folks here in Homer. Then they will tow it to Cook Inlet to its first drilling site,” Wrede said.

Energizing ideas — Sen. Murkowski highlights Alaska’s challenges, possibilities in state tour with visiting senators

By Jenny Neyman

Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, head out from the Kenai Municipal Airport on Monday after a tour of Cook Inlet oil and gas facilities.

Redoubt Reporter

Even when coming from other energy-producing states, it’s good for lawmakers to get a firsthand look at Alaska and the unique challenges and opportunities it has for energy production, said Sen. Lisa Murowski, R-Alaska, while playing host and tour guide to senators from North Dakota, Louisiana and Oregon in recent weeks.

“Particularly for people that are in policy-making positions, they need to understand that their knowledge base might not necessarily translate to what actually happens here,” Murkowski said, referencing visits from Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana. “Both of them, I think, would tell you, ‘I am an energy senator. I know and I understand it.’ But when they come up here and see what it is that we deal with, how we operate here, what some of the confines and challenges are, they’re like, ‘Wow. I didn’t understand it,’ because they have made certain assumptions that they know what it’s like because they have oil and gas exploration and production. And I think it’s important to recognize that it is different here and to figure out how you ensure that a state like ours can have the same advantages and the same benefits that a state like North Dakota or Louisiana can.”

Murkowski has been making a tour of the state since Aug. 10, including stops on the North Slope to check in on Shell Oil’s proposed offshore development, and a visit with Sen. Hoeven to ConocoPhillips’ Alpine Oil Field.

“We’re always looking over our shoulder at North Dakota now because they’ve taken over in terms of their production. It was really interesting having him there because I somehow or another assumed, because he came from an energy-producing state that he would understand Alaska’s situation,” Murkowski said.

However, North Dakota has less than 3 percent of its land owned by the federal government.

“He’s looking at this very small pad — one of the concerns that they have is there’s no place for storage of any kind,” Murkowski said. “And he says, ‘Well, why don’t you just expand your pad?’ And you say, ‘Well, that’s a little bit difficult.’ And he says, ‘Well, how come you don’t build some roads around here?’ And we kind of chuckle, but in North Dakota, that’s just not an issue. You want to access your resources, you build a road. You want to get from here to there, you build a bridge. You want a bigger storage pad, you build a bigger storage pad because you’re negotiating with either private individuals or the state. In Alaska we’re negotiating with the federal government, and we are not in a good, strong negotiating position.”

‘No on 2’ no-show — Debate turns into discussion on coastal zone management

By Naomi Klouda

Photo by Naomi Klouda, Homer Tribune. From left, Bob Shavelson with Cook Inletkeeper, Rep. Paul Seaton, Assemblyman Mako Haggerty and Assemblyman Bill Smith speak to voters about the Coastal Zone Management ballot initiative.

Homer Tribune

The Vote No On 2 group was a no-show at a public debate on Ballot Measure 2 at the Kachemak Bay Campus of Kenai Peninsula College on Thursday, leaving Kenai Peninsula Assemblyman Bill Smith in the position of arguing their points against the measure.

Cook Inletkeeper’s Bob Shavelson, ballot sponsor Mako Haggerty, Rep. Paul Seaton, and Smith fielded the discussion for a packed room. All of them are in favor of the measure, though Smith presented the opposition’s objections.

It wasn’t necessarily a debate, but the matter of why it might be important to re-establish the Alaska Coastal Zone Management Program was thoroughly vetted.

“It felt like once people got informed, they clearly preferred Alaskans to have a voice in coastal decisions, and that just highlights the other side that is not working to educate, but to scare and confuse them,” Shavelson said.

The Vote No group has raised nearly $767,995.31, with its primary backers listed as Shell Oil, the Alaska Resource Development Council, ConocoPhillips and the Alaska Miners Association, according to the Alaska Public Offices Commission.

Meanwhile, the Alaska Sea Party, the measure’s proponent, is listed by APOC as having raised $63,688.86, of which 121 contributors gave $100 or less. To do public outreach, the Vote for the Coast people are “sharing” messages on Facebook with as many people as possible. One sharing featured three young women who work at Finn’s Pizza saying, “We would give the shirts off our back to have a voice in coastal decisions.” They are covered in the signs and little else. It was shared 4,000 times in a single day.

“We realized we needed to raise awareness on the campaign. Due to the fact that we are all grassroots, and funding was not readily available for advertising, we decided to use the Internet in the best way we could. So we Facebooked those photos to get some buzz going,” Haggerty said.

The initial contact with the Vote No on 2 group was made by Haggerty several weeks ago, inviting them to the debate. Haggerty was assured someone would represent the group. On Monday, when he called to check for last-minute details, he was told by Willis Lyford that they had no one to come to Homer and would have to decline. The public relations firm of Porcaro Communications is Lyford’s employer. It is the agency behind the ad campaign for Vote No on 2, and its official spokesperson.

“We had a packed schedule and you can only do what you can do,” Lyford said Friday. “We’ve been very busy these past few weeks with speaking engagements, and I had no one to send.”

Empty promises — Set-netters allowed to fish but haul in slim pickings

By Jenny Neyman

Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Tim Fitzpatrick and Mike Juliussen (in truck) haul in a measly catch of salmon at their fishing site south of the Kasilof beach during an opening for east side commercial set netters Monday.

Redoubt Reporter

After spending all but three days of their season sitting high and dry on the beach, the Juliussen family’s gillnets stretched out into Cook Inlet from their fishing site south of the Kasilof River on Monday, in the first opening east side set-netters have seen since their commercial sockeye fishery was closed July 19.

But the nets did not come back full enough to make up for lost time, tides or fish.

“I roughly figure I’ve made about $386, total,” said Mike Juliussen. “This is the worst we ever seen.”

And Juliussen’s memory is long, as a lifelong set-net fisherman, longer even than the 35-foot nets he and his family fish when not shut down, as they were this year, by a decision from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game meant to help the Kenai and Kasilof rivers make their escapement goals of king salmon in a run estimated to be drastically low. Set-netters sometimes snag kings in their nets set for sockeye salmon, so when the in-river sport fishery for kings was closed, the east side commercial set-netters also bore the burden of conserving kings by being shut down.

Fishermen in the Kenai area got just one opening before the closure, while those in the Kasilof area had three open days. In an announcement released Sunday, the department stated that the king run may have been late more than it was nonexistent, and that the estimated escapement outlook had improved to the point of allowing the east side set-netters to fish. But at this point, with most of the sockeye run already in the rivers, there isn’t much to catch.

Juliussen, 64, and his family have been fishing for 63 years, since 1949, and he said he can’t remember a

Brothers Mike Juliussen, left, and Eugene Juliussen, right, coil up the net as the day’s opening neared a close around 6:30 p.m. Monday. The family has been set-net fishermen for 63 years.

more economically devastating year than this one.

“I was hoping I’d catch enough today to pay my borough taxes — I owe about 1,110 bucks in borough tax — but it don’t look like it,” he said. “This is a disaster.”

A typical fishing season in recent years would earn Juliussen $50,000 to $60,000 gross, and that’s what he and his family lives on for the year. Luckily for Juliussen, the family fishing site has been in operation for so long that they own it outright — the lease on the beach site, the dory, its outboard motor and the beat-up trucks they use to haul nets in from the surf and haul fish off to sell to Snug Harbor Seafoods. But they still have expenses — including gas, licenses and food. This spring they took a loan to buy new nets, expecting to be able to use them, and barely got that paid off with the 52 sockeye and 60 humpies they’d caught so far.

Jack-up rig en route to Kenai Peninsula — Buccaneer’s rig goes to work off Anchor Point in the Cosmopolitan Unit

By Naomi Klouda

Homer Tribune

The Buccaneer Energy Limited jack-up rig “Endeavour — Spirit of Independence” was loaded onto the Kang Sheng Kou heavy lift vessel and is now en route to the Cook Inlet with a delivery expected the last week in August.

The delivery of the Endeavour jack-up rig to the Cook Inlet will complete the first phase of Buccaneer’s business plan started almost two years ago. The partnership with the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority means the state of Alaska has invested $23.65 million into the purchase of the Endeavour. It will be drilling in the Cosmopolitan Unit in southern Cook Inlet, an area that is ice-free in winter. Instead of mooring the jack-up rig in the Homer Harbor, the plan now is to continue work off Anchor Point in the winter months. An additional advantage is that the rig can later be leased out for work in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, said AIDEA spokesperson Karsten Rodvik.

“The priority is drilling Buccaneer’s prospect. And they are required to use the rig for all of the inlet drilling as long as AIDEA has an ownership in the rig. The first series of wells will be Cook Inlet,” Rodvik said. “The rig was modified to make it capable for use in the Chukchi and Beaufort Sea. During 2012, it was to be on standby for major operators in those projects that presents an opportunity for Buccaneer to improve utilization of the rig.”

AIDEA is a public corporation of the state of Alaska, created in 1967 by the Alaska Legislature to promote “the health, security, and general welfare of all the people of the state.” Its mission statement is to increase job opportunities and otherwise encourage the economic growth of the state, including the development of its natural resources, through the establishment and expansion of manufacturing, industrial, energy, export, small business and business enterprises.

It is expected to take approximately 21 to 28 days for Endeavour to reach Cook Inlet, where the rig will be offloaded and towed via tug to the first well location in Buccaneer’s offshore program, by Anchor Point.