Oil and gas exploration in America

Captains

Alaska's North Slope, the Chukchi Sea and the Beaufort Sea inevitably come to mind as one wonders about the future of oil and gas exploration in the post-Deepwater Horizon years. One thing I learned during my Gulf of Mexico experience is that local leadership matters. The Gulf Coast mayors are dealing with the aftermath of BP's Mississippi Canyon drilling accident. Mayor Itta of the Alaska North Slope is dealing with BP, Shell, and ConocoPhillips before they drill in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas.

RADM W

Alaska politician Edward Itta, an Inupiat Eskimo, stands at the center of our country's struggle to balance environmental and energy demands

by Bob Reiss

published: 07/18/2010

Edward Itta, 65, may be one of America’s most powerful mayors—but you’ve probably never heard of him. He governs the Wyoming-sized North Slope Borough of Alaska, a territory larger than 39 of our 50 states. However, his influence doesn’t come from the size of that area but from what lies beneath the land and its adjacent waters. The North Slope contains the country’s largest oil field, Prudhoe Bay, which is now producing less than one-third of its former peak flow. The next great energy find—up to 27 billion barrels of oil and 132 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to U.S. government sources—is thought to be under the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, directly offshore from the North Slope.