The resurgent boom continues in Cook Inlet. At the annual Kenai Peninsula Industry Outlook Forum this week in Kenai, new oil and gas player Blue Crest, based in Forth Worth, made some of the biggest announcements.
CEO Benjamin Johnson says they’ve partnered with a California company called Wespac to build a new LNG facility that would make natural gas available across the state.
“Put it in small containers that can fit on barges, on rail cars, on trucks, and basically provide a cheap alternative to diesel fuel that most of the communities in the state are using.”
Johnson offered few details about what communities might provide a market for the gas, when it could be available or for how much. He says bringing in someone else to produce the gas will get it to market faster.
“They (Wespac) will drill these gas wells and they’ll deepen some into the oil zones. They’ll also put the platforms and pipelines in place. And then at some point after they’ve reached a minimum return, or are able to get their money back, then Blue Crest will come back in and begin owning the assets and eventually end up the majority owner.”
Wespac will own the gas producing portions of the fields, located near Anchor Point, while Blue Crest will operate them and several onshore oil wells it plans to drill in 2015 and 2016.
Shaylon Cochran is a host and reporter at KDLL in Kenai. He’s reported on fishing, energy, agriculture and local politics since coming to Alaska in 2011. He has worked at KDLL/KBBI on the Kenai Peninsula, where he picked up lots of new hobbies, like smoking salmon, raising chickens, skiing and counting RV’s. He holds a bachelors degree in Journalism from Iowa State University.
