Oil company says it likely cant continue to drill unless state pays tax credits

A company drilling extended-reach oil wells at a fracking operation in Cook Inlet says it likely cannot afford to drill additional wells, and expects to lay off more than 150 full-time workers, because the state has not paid the oil-tax credit cash it planned on receiving.

The drilling program that employs those workers is expected to be completed next month, said Benji Johnson, president of BlueCrest Energy, based in Fort Worth, Texas. The company isn't shutting down the field, which currently produces a small amount of oil.

"We're pausing drilling," he said.

BlueCrest is currently using a giant rig to drill its second, new long-distance well from shore, about 4 miles into the Inlet and more than a mile under the seabed, as part of an effort to tap oil from the Cosmopolitan Unit by fracturing the oil-bearing rock. The company began drilling an earlier, separate well in December, also into Cosmopolitan, at its site about 6 miles north of Anchor Point.

So far, little BlueCrest oil is flowing — just 200 barrels of oil daily, state records show. Most of that is coming from an older well originally drilled into Cosmopolitan by an earlier operator. BlueCrest bought that well after it formed as a business in Alaska in 2012.

Read more: https://www.adn.com/business-economy/energy/2017/08/02/oil-company-says-it-likely-cant-continue-to-drill-unless-state-pays-tax-credits/