Beneath the surface of Alaska: exploring the strata with petroleum geologists.

• Author: Swann, Kirsten
• Position: OIL & GAS

Sitting in the shadow of the Fifth Avenue Mall, the single-story office building in the heart of Downtown Anchorage doesn't look like much.

But when Steve Davies walks through the doors, every day brings a new adventure.

The building is home to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC), an independent, quasi-judicial body tasked with overseeing oil and gas operations on state land. One of two senior petroleum geologists on the AOGCC staff, Davies works to conduct subsurface drilling and production operations around the state.

It keeps him busy. The two AOGCC geologists oversee every permit to drill in Alaska, review proposed programs, and make sure operations comply with state regulations and Commission orders.

"It's fascinating, to be honest, because it's such a wide spectrum of different projects," Davies says.

For Alaska's petroleum geologists, discovery comes with the terrain.

It's a field of work that plays a key role in advancing energy development projects around the state. Geoscientists lead the search for new oil and gas reserves. They find ways to safely and efficiently tap existing reservoirs, all while protecting surrounding natural resources.

At AOGCC, Davies' job description varies from other geoscientists working for private companies.

"When you work with a company, you're focused on a single project or just a small set of projects," he says. "But here ... you get to see the full gamut of projects, both exploratory and development."

AOGCC has a broad, deeply rooted role in the state's petroleum business. Established under state statute more than fifty years ago, its mission is "to protect the public interest in exploration and development of Alaska's valuable oil, gas, and geothermal resources through the application of conservation practices designed to ensure greater ultimate recovery and the protection of health, safety, fresh ground waters, and the rights of all owners to recover their share of the resource."

Upholding that mission requires deep knowledge of things deep below the ground. Davies and his fellow senior petroleum geologist, Patricia Bettis, have combined decades of work experience in the field. They leverage scientific education, regulatory expertise, and AOGCC's extensive information database to make decisions regarding petroleum projects in Alaska.

AOGCC keeps information on nearly every single well in the state; between six thousand to seven thousand files. For a new exploratory project, the geologists pull all the data on the area and review it as part of AOGCC's due diligence, Davies says.

"We'll make sure that the operators haven't overlooked anything, and we quality check their work to make sure everything they're doing is complete," he says. "These operators we have up here--we're very fortunate in that they're very competent and very professional."

The job isn't all oil and gas: The Commission is also concerned with water and works...