text: Cook Inlet oil production up 25 percent | Peninsula Clarion
  Saturday, August 30, 2014 7:03pm
  Cook Inlet oil producers have boosted output 25 percent in the last year, data from the state Department of Natural Resources indicates.
  Production averaged of 16,288 barrels per day, compared in the first half of 2014 compared with 13,087 barrels per day in the same period of 2013.
  Information from the Department of Revenue, which also tracks production, shows a similar growth trend, with an average of 15,800 barrels per day in fiscal year 2014 that ended June 30, compared with 12,200 barrels per day in the previous fiscal year.
  In fiscal year 2010, production in Cook Inlet was 8,900 barrels per day after five years of decline from 20,300 barrels per day in fiscal year 2005, according to the Revenue Department data.
  The Monopod Platform in the Inlet, operated by Hilcorp, has increased to 2,900 barrels per day, up from 820 barrels per day in the first quarter of 2013. The Osprey platform, operated by Cook Inlet Energy, saw an increase from 226 barrels per day to 1,221 barrels per day in the same period.
  Cook Inlet oil and gas fields have been producing since the 1960s and 1970s and the current renaissance is typical when new companies, particularly independent companies, enter a producing basin that was pioneered and initially developed by large oil companies.
  Another major independent, Apache Corp., is exploring on its own in the Inlet with a major seismic program and one exploration well drilled so far.
  Oil and Gas Division Director Bill Barron echoed Balash's comments: "Increases in production from mature fields are not possible without significant investment by the operators," he said.