Barrow gas fields: keeping homes heated and lights on.

• Author: Lavrakas, Dimitra
• Position: OIL & GAS

Barrow is blessed: it has gas. In fact, it has possibly the cheapest gas in all of Alaska thanks to three big fields right outside of town--the East and South Barrow Gas Fields, originally developed by the United States Navy in the 1940s but now owned by the North Slope Borough, and the Walakpa Gas Fields, a North Slope Borough project.

Cheaper than what is charged for potable water, natural gas heats homes and runs the turbines that generate the electricity that the member-owned cooperative Barrow Utilities & Electric Coop Inc. then offers at a very reasonable residential rate to the residents of Barrow. A rate many villages in Alaska would envy.

BUECI gets the natural gas from the North Slope Borough at $1 per 1,000 cubic feet (MCF), says Ben Franz, BUECI manager. "We use the natural gas for our energy source to run our turbines," says Franz. "We do offer a residential rate now of $0.1106 (a bit over 11 cents KWH) to our membership."

We sell natural gas to our members after the base rate of $20.76 for the first 0-55 CCF (hundred cubic feet) and $0.3049 a CCF after the first 55 CCF (a bit over 30 cents a hundred cubic foot)."

The BUECI staff is locally renowned and respected for getting electricity up and flowing quickly after severe Arctic storms, he says

Gas in Perpetuity

Before World War II, the U.S. Navy produced a small amount of gas out past the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory to fuel the lab. After the war, the line was extended to Barrow proper and the two other fields, East Barrow and Walakpa, were developed after 1980 to provide additional gas to the growing Barrow community.

The Barrow Gas Field Transfer Act of 1984 was visionary legislation for Barrow. It directed the Secretary of the Interior to convey to the North Slope Borough the subsurface estate held by the U.S., including the Barrow gas fields and the Walakpa gas site, and any related support facilities, other lands, interests and funds.

For decades, that first step proved to be a boon to the residents who lived where commodities like food and fuel came with a steep price.

An Earlier Project

In 2009-2010, according to Alaska oil and gas field general contractor CONAM Construction Co.'s website, "CONAM along with Alaska Native partner Tikigaq of Pt. Hope and design engineer, Design Associates, provided turn-key structural, mechanical and electrical design, procurement and installation for three new double gas well locations at three remote Barrow Gas Field sites...