{"id":23909,"date":"2017-05-07T11:58:21","date_gmt":"2017-05-07T16:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=23909"},"modified":"2017-05-07T11:58:21","modified_gmt":"2017-05-07T16:58:21","slug":"after-years-long-push-fracking-has-quietly-arrived-in-alaska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=23909","title":{"rendered":"After Years&#8217; Long Push, Fracking Has Quietly Arrived in Alaska"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 id=\"page-title\" class=\"page__title title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/2017\/05\/07\/fracking-arrives-alaska-project-icewine\">After Years&#8217; Long Push, Fracking Has Quietly Arrived in Alaska<\/a><\/h3>\n<article class=\"node-11735 node node-blog node-promoted view-mode-full clearfix\">\n<div class=\"field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/sites\/beta.desmogblog.com\/files\/styles\/full_width_blog_image\/public\/blogimages\/Screen%20Shot%202017-05-05%20at%205.55.44%20PM.png?itok=xCZKbLGz\" alt=\"\" width=\"826\" height=\"388\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"horizontal-social-bar horizontal-social-bar-top clearfix\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/fracking-the-future\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hydraulic fracturing<\/a>&#8216;s horizontal drilling technique\u00a0has enabled industry to tap\u00a0otherwise difficult-to-access oil and gas in shale basins\u00a0throughout the <span class=\"caps\">U.S.<\/span> and increasingly throughout the world. And now \u201cfracking,\u201d as it&#8217;s known, could soon arrive at a new frontier:\u00a0Alaska.<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2017-03-09\/a-father-of-fracking-seeks-to-emulate-u-s-shale-boom-in-alaska\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bloomberg reported<\/a> in March,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/paul-basinski-4a649415\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul Basinski<\/a>, a pioneer of fracking in Texas&#8217; prolific <a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/directory\/vocabulary\/7759\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Eagle Ford Shale<\/a>, has led the\u00a0push to explore fracking&#8217;s potential there,\u00a0in what&#8217;s been dubbed \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=HJUxZLtRB_s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Project Icewine<\/a>.\u201d His company, Burgundy Xploration, is working on fracking in Alaska&#8217;s North Slope territory alongside the Australia-based company\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/88energy.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">88 Energy<\/a> (formerly\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.offshoreenergytoday.com\/tangiers-petroleum-changes-name\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tangiers Petroleum<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe land sits over three underground bands of shale, from 3,000 to 20,000 feet below ground, that are the source rocks for the huge conventional oilfields to the north,\u201d wrote Bloomberg. \u201cThe companies\u2019 first well, Icewine 1, confirmed the presence of petroleum in the shale and found a geology that should be conducive to\u00a0fracking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Why the name \u201cProject Icewine\u201d?\u00a0\u201cEverything we do is about wine,\u201d Basinski <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alaskapublic.org\/2017\/03\/23\/will-a-texan-australian-partnership-bring-the-shale-revolution-to-the-north-slope\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told Alaska Public Radio<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s called Icewine. Because it\u2019s cold up here, and I like German ice\u00a0wine\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Geographical\u00a0Terrain<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A report by <span class=\"caps\">DJ<\/span> Carmichael, an Australian stockbroker firm,\u00a0notes that the Project Icewine oilfield is located in close proximity to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, which flows from northern to southern Alaska and is <a href=\"http:\/\/alyeska-pipeline.com\/TAPS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">co-owned<\/a> by <span class=\"caps\">BP<\/span>, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and\u00a0Chevron.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kJqn0wWvBNU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Drone footage<\/a>,\u00a0taken in 2016 by a company owned by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski&#8217;s campaign manager,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/steve-wackowski-3092b650\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Steve Wackowski<\/a>, shows a fracking test well being drilled for\u00a0Icewine\u00a01.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"player\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kJqn0wWvBNU\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>According to an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.asx.com.au\/asxpdf\/20170407\/pdf\/43hd1cttsm8692.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Australian\u00a0Securities Exchange\u00a0filing<\/a>, in\u00a0April of this year, 88 Energy and Burgundy Xploration\u00a0began pre-drilling procedures for Icewine 2, a second fracking test well.\u00a0In the filing, which also noted receipt of a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/webcache.googleusercontent.com\/search?q=cache:CR7ROB0nVdYJ:doa.alaska.gov\/ogc\/drilling\/apr09ap.xls+&amp;cd=1&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Permit to Drill<\/a> from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, 88 Energy said it expects to begin\u00a0\u201cstimulation and production testing\u201d\u00a0in June or\u00a0July.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After Years&#8217; Long Push, Fracking Has Quietly Arrived in Alaska Hydraulic fracturing&#8216;s horizontal drilling technique\u00a0has enabled industry to tap\u00a0otherwise difficult-to-access oil and gas in shale basins\u00a0throughout the U.S. and increasingly throughout the world. And now \u201cfracking,\u201d as it&#8217;s known, could soon arrive at a new frontier:\u00a0Alaska. As Bloomberg reported in March,\u00a0Paul Basinski, a pioneer of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[2037,5317,331,11481],"class_list":["post-23909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-alaska","tag-desmog-blog","tag-fracking","tag-steve-horn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23909"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23910,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23909\/revisions\/23910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}