Industry Invests Billions in Exploration, Production Efforts: Preparations underway for upcoming winter push.

• Position: OIL & GAS

Oil and gas exploration is always underway in Alaska no matter the season. From conception to the moment the black liquid begins to flow, oil and gas is an industry in constant motion.

Production Increases

Part of that motion is production. Even with the state's continued lower-for-longer oil pricing (June of 2015 was the last month during which Alaska North Slope crude averaged more than $60 per barrel), overall production still managed to increase in 2016. The volume of oil moving through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) experienced its first calendar year-over-year increase since 2002, according to Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, which reports that in 2016 on average 517,868 barrels of oil per day traveled through TAPS, an increase of nearly 2 percent from 508,446 barrels per day on average in 2015.

"More oil is the best long-term solution for sustaining TAPS, from a technical and operational standpoint," said Thomas Barrett, Alyeska president, in a late fall press release. "It's also the best thing for Alaskans and our economy. Every barrel matters to us. The more throughput, the better we can plan for the continuing safe operation of the pipeline."

After forty years in operation, TAPS has mostly reported annual throughput declines since its peak flow of 2 million barrels a day in 1988. The only exceptions were slight year-over-year increases in 1991 and 2002.

Alyeska employees anticipate and respond to increasing challenges brought on by the declining oil flow. Lower flow leads to slower moving oil, which in turn allows the oil time to cool, with the potential for ice formation in the line and for water and wax to drop out of the flow stream and accumulate, the company reports.

But even as Alyeska continues to adjust to lower flows by taking measures such as adding heat to the pipeline and modifying pipeline pigging operations, industry experts agree that the best-case scenario is bringing more oil to TAPS.

"We're supportive of an external environment that encourages responsible resource development and helps us sustain TAPS' flow level and work toward future throughput increases," Barrett said.

Where's the Development?

As oil exploration and development companies prepare for the North Slope winter production season, permitting for a variety of wells from a range of industry leaders is in full effect. According to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, there were about a dozen development permits approved in September...