Elizabeth Harball, Alaska's Energy Desk

On April 26, the Anchorage Petroleum Wives Club held a historic vote, and the members decided unanimously to change their name to the Anchorage Petroleum Women’s Association — effective June 1.

The state has concluded that just three gallons of liquid escaped from one of Hilcorp’s platforms into Cook Inlet in early April. The leak’s source was a feed line for the platform’s gas flare system, not the underwater oil pipeline.

Hilcorp says the project would eliminate the need to store oil at the Drift River Terminal. That terminal has worried environmental groups for years because it sits at the bottom of Mount Redoubt, an active volcano.

ConocoPhillips has confirmed it’s giving up its small stake in the Point Thomson field on the North Slope. The move has some observers wondering if it’s a bad sign for the state’s effort to build a massive natural gas line.

Last week, Hilcorp was finally able to fix a fuel line in Cook Inlet that regulators say started leaking gas in December. But the oil and gas company and its allies are still struggling to contain another issue: environmental groups, which argue that Hilcorp’s problems in Cook Inlet disqualify the company from drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean.

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation today announced that a leaking oil and gas well on the North Slope was successfully plugged.