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ARROW -- While many Alaska Bush communities rely on diesel and fuel oil to heat their homes, the states farthest north city enjoys the luxury of clean natural-gas energy piped from nearby gas fields owned by the North Slope Borough.
That's right. Anchorage isn't the only local government in Alaska with an ownership stake in natural-gas deposits. The north Slope Borough owns three nearby gas fields. The fields contain estimated recoverable reserves exceeding 155 billion cubic feet of natural gas and supply the community with an average of 1.2 billion cubic feet a year. They are Barrow's best bet for inexpensive, reliable energy. But they also are its biggest challenge to sustain.
The Barrow gas fields are the oldest producing gas deposits in Alaska, officially discovered by the U.S. Navy in 1949 when South Barrow No. 2 was drilled. Though the South Barrow field still contains an estimated 10.6 billion cubic feet of reserves, production has declined as the field has aged and taken on water.
The East Barrow field, discovered in the 1970s, should be depleted by geologists' reckoning. But it still has several producing wells, including East Barrow No. 14, which is the strongest individual well in all three gas fields, according to George Finlayson, project manager for the gas fields for Ukpeagvik Arctic Slope, a joint venture of UIC Corp. and the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. that manages the fields for the borough.
"East Barrow No. 14 is capable of producing 2 million cubic feet a day of natural gas, enough to supply the entire Barrow community," Finlayson said.
The Navy originally used gas from the Barrow area to fuel its base camp for exploring the Naval Petroleum Reserve, or NPR-A.
From 1948 until 1955, five wells -- four wildcat and one development -- were drilled near Barrow in search of oil and gas. The successful wells were considered a temporary energy supply for the Navy camp and later for federal agencies in Barrow.
In 1964, Barrow residents petitioned for and received the right to purchase gas from the fields for their own use. The community soon became the area's main gas consumer.
In 1976, jurisdiction of NPR-4 was transferred from the U.S. Navy to the U.S. Department of the Interior...