North Slope

ConocoPhillips Alaska announced it is building a new drilling rig that will more than double the area it can develop from a single drill site.

Caelus Energy said it’s made a major oil discovery on the North Slope, at Smith Bay. The company estimates the oil under its current state leases at 6 billion barrels and says as much as 10 billion may lie under the shallow bay.

The Department of Natural Resources has approved the latest development plan for Prudhoe Bay, ending a stand-off that raised fears the Walker administration was threatening the leases at the site — potentially disrupting production at the state’s largest oil field.

For over 40 years, Alaska’s leaders have been promising to build a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope. This week, Alaska’s Energy Desk asks: Will it ever happen? And, if so — why is it taking so long?

A look at what’s worked, and what hasn’t, as the state tries to get its natural gas to market

Rep. Benjamin Nageak is a Democratic member of the Alaska House of Representatives since 2013. We heard his last name pronounced several different ways. KTOO and Alaska Public government reporter Andrew Kitchenman asked Nageak to pronounce his name during a taped phone conversation.