Alaska_geo wrote:turbidites
Delta sequences with turbidites can constitute excellent oil reservoirs and have been successfully developed in many areas of the world. See: lessons-learned-from-43-turbidite-giant-oil-fields
Alaska_geo wrote: I don't think they are running a scam. I think they are trying to put the best spin they can with the data they have.
Thats the nature of the oil biz. Everybody knows there is risk involved, but the exploration geologist tells his story and promotes his plays to management, and after a discovery is made if management wants another company to partner in the development then management tells their story and promotes the sale of a part interest in the discovery to potential partners.
Alaska_geo wrote:
I totally agree that the State should pay up on the exploration tax credit. Trying to postpone those payments is a big mistake by the Walker administration, and probably won't hold up in court. However....The tax credits are (supposed) to be paid just for drilling, whether or not they find anything.
Of course they're supposed to be paid---but they haven't been. This has infuriated Caelus management. The state of Alaska is stiffing Caelus for 200 million dollars and that is a lot of money for a small independent oil company.
Gov. Walker has blocked the legally required payments, and there are folks in the state legislature who strongly oppose the payment program itself. Caelus is owed two hundred million dollars by the state of Alaska, and publicly announcing this discovery puts Caelus in a strong legal position to demand payment, as they have done what they pledged to do and met the rationale behind the tax credits.
alaska-and-oil-a-lesson-in-biting-the-hand-that-feeds-you
"Caelus is the poster child," says [CEO] Musselman, 68. "We were exactly what they wanted to happen."
So imagine his fury when Governor Walker this year vetoed a spending bill that would have paid out $400 million to small oil explorers, as required by law. Walker, an independent politician, is unapologetic....it's easier for politicians like Walker to raise taxes on oil companies than on voters. "The oil tax credit program was not well put together," says Walker, who intends to overhaul the entire law.
"What the governor has done is the opposite of what Alaska needs," says Dave Harbour, former chairman of the state regulatory commission. " Why would anyone invest in a state that has one foot over the edge of a precipice and the other standing on a banana peel? What we need to show investors is that in Alaska a deal is a deal."
"[Alaska] competes for capital with projects around the world," says Joe Marushack, president of Alaska operations for Conoco-Phillips, which is investing billions in the state. "Increasing our costs decreases our ability to invest."
Their importance to Alaska gives the oil companies some leverage in dealing with Walker. "He's kind of stuck his shiv in us," Musselman says. "But he needs us to bail him out." Musselman is not about to back down. He learned long ago that it's worth navigating the political minefield if there's the prospect of a big prize. He has worked in Colombia and Malaysia, and in the late 1990s he led Triton Energy to its discovery of the 500-million-barrel Ceiba field in Equatorial Guinea. After Hess Corp. bought Triton for $3.2 billion in 2001, Musselman formed Kosmos Energy and went exploring off the shore of Ghana. In 2007 Kosmos made the first oil discovery in Ghanaian history, the Jubilee field, which now produces 100,000 bpd. Musselman still holds a big chunk of shares in Kosmos (market cap: $2.2 billion).
Musselman has seen firsthand that amazing amounts of oil can be coaxed out of politically complicated regimes, although it's no compliment to Governor Walker to compare Alaska to Equatorial Guinea and Ghana. He sees the potential for Caelus and its peers to add 400,000 bpd to North Slope output over the next decade. "We can help the state of Alaska solve its fiscal problem for the next three or four generations, if they'll let us." His message to Walker: "Don't spook the money. If you spook the money, they stay spooked."
It can't be any clearer then that----Caelus wants its money from the state.
Cheers!
Caelus rig drilling at Smith Bay