Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources
Alaska Federal Offshore, January 1995

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) recently released an Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Monograph entitled Undiscovered Oil and Gas Resources, Alaska Federal Offshore, as of January 1995. The 531-page monograph with 5 folded plates provides the fundamental data that support the most recent oil and gas assessment of offshore Alaska. The report contains descriptions of computer models, geologic data for offshore basins, and economic models. Assessment results are also reported and compared with past assessments. Individual chapters describe the petroleum geology of the Chukchi shelf, Beaufort shelf, Hope basin, Navarin basin, North Aleutian basin, St. George basin, Norton basin, St. Matthew-Hall basin, Cook Inlet, Gulf of Alaska shelf, and Shumagin-Kodiak shelf assessment provinces.

The 1995 assessment results identify areas of high potential for undiscovered oil and gas that are in turn used to guide development of OCS leasing strategies. The monograph shows that the highest near term economic potential occurs in the Beaufort shelf and Cook Inlet assessment provinces. Chukchi shelf has favorable geologic potential, but its economic potential is constrained by severe capital costs of exploration and development.

An executive summary of the results of the 1995 assessment was previously published as OCS Report MMS 96-0033, "Endowments of Undiscovered Conventionally Recoverable and Economically Recoverable Oil and Gas in the Alaska Federal Offshore." This executive summary, along with input data and assessment results that are replicated in the appendices of OCS Monograph MMS 98-0054, are available on the web page at www.mms.gov/alaska/re/rereport.htm

This report, OCS Monograph MMS 98-0054, is available from the Minerals Management Service, Technical Services Branch, Information Technology Division, 381 Elden Street, MS 4063, Herndon, VA 20170-4817. Copies are available free of charge, as long as the supply lasts, from the above address. Requests may be placed by phone at (703)787-1080 or by fax at (703) 787-1050, or by e-mail at tech.pubs@mms.gov. Once the limited supply is gone, copies will be available from the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, Virginia 22161, or may be inspected at selected Federal Depository Libraries.