Alaska Petroleum Systems

The Alaska Petroleum Systems project has three main objectives: (1) conduct research that increases our understanding of Alaska petroleum systems, (2) conduct assessments of undiscovered oil and gas resources, and (3) deliver energy-resource information to land and resource managers, policy makers, and the public.

Abstract

Alaska is a nexus of competing land- and resource-use issues involving federal, state, and Native decision-making. The USGS is viewed by federal and Alaska policymakers, Native and environmental organizations, the petroleum industry, and the media as the primary source of objective, scientific petroleum information pertinent to a spectrum of issues that are prominent on the national, regional, and international scenes. The information generated by this project is broadly used by these stakeholders for analysis and decision-making related to petroleum-resources issues. The USGS was directed by Secretarial Order 3352 (SO3352) in 2017 to update assessments of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources of the North Slope. This directive underscores the project's role in building the scientific framework for understanding oil and gas resource potential, and for providing objective information for decision making by federal, state, Native, and industry stakeholders.

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Products

Title	Type
Geochemical Data from Selected Triassic Rock Samples in Northeastern Alaska	Data
Geochemical, Geochronologic, Rock-Eval, and Spectral Gamma Ray Data for Selected Triassic Rocks in Northwestern Alaska	Data
Location Data for Petrographic Samples and Isotopic and Age Data from Detrital Zircon Grains from Selected Rock Samples from St. Lawrence Island and the Western Brooks Range, Alaska	Data
USGS Alaska Petroleum Systems	Project Website
U-Pb Isotopic Data and Ages of Detrital Zircon and Volcanic Zircon Grains from the Torok and Nanushuk Formations, Arctic Alaska, 2021	Data

Contacts

Houseknect, David W., 703-648-6466

Status: onGoing
Start Year: 2017
End Year: 2022

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USGS Mission Area and Program

Energy and Minerals → Energy Resources

Keywords

Solid Earth > Natural Resources > Petroleum