Furie Operating Alaska announced it wrapped up a successful offshore drilling season with the departure of the Spartan 151 jack-up rig, marking a key target met in its ongoing efforts to shore up Southcentral Alaska’s dwindling natural gas reserves.
The company announced that it met all operational goals during the season, which included drilling two new wells and performing a work-over on another in the Kitchen Lights Unit. The wells are expected to come online in July, delivering much-needed gas to Southcentral Alaska’s energy grid.
“It has been an incredible season working alongside you,” said Furie CEO John Hendrix in a message to the Hilcorp Spartan 151 team. “Your commitment and collaboration have been instrumental in making this season a success.”
Furie, the only fully Alaska-owned oil and gas operator, has invested more than $900 million into Cook Inlet development, including the construction of the newest offshore gas production platform. The company’s share of Cook Inlet’s total gas production rose from 5% in December 2024 to 7.5% by February 2025.
The spring drilling campaign, launched in April, was funded in part by a loan from the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, as part of a $50 million revolving credit line approved in May. The program boosted the major component of Furie’s strategy to confront the projected regional gas shortage expected to begin around 2027.
Southcentral Alaska, home to over half the state’s population, faces a critical energy contract shortfall in the coming years as production from the Cook Inlet basin declines. The region currently relies on the Cook Inlet for about 80% of its natural gas, which powers 90% of its electricity and heats the vast majority of homes. Without new sources, state officials warn the region could see a 20–30% supply gap by 2030.
While the state is exploring LNG imports as a contingency, imports are expected to be significantly more expensive than local production, which could drive up energy prices across Anchorage and Southcentral.
Furie’s drilling initiative represents one of the few major new development efforts in the Cook Inlet basin. The company has worked closely with other Alaska-based firms including Fairweather LLC and Maritime Helicopters to execute the program. In February, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources granted royalty rate reductions to Furie to help support a five-year gas supply contract with Enstar, though company leaders have emphasized that long-term production gains will depend more on access to capital than on regulatory concessions.
High costs, aging infrastructure, and a challenging regulatory environment have slowed new exploration in Cook Inlet, where longtime producers like Hilcorp and Furie currently carry the burden of ensuring regional energy stability.
Among the companies that worked this year to bring the project to a success were: M&H, Cruz Construction, Inc., Udelhoven, Fairweather, LLC, Weaver Bros., Inc., Parker Wellbore, American Piledriving Equipment Inc., Five Star Oilfield Services, LLC, Cook Inlet Spill Prevention and Response, AIDEA, and Hilcorp.
While this is good news and encouraging, this approach is not a long-term solution for Southcentral’s gas supply problem. According to Wood Mackenzie, Cook Inlet gas production is expected to be depleted by the mid-2030s. Recent exploration success in Cook inlet has been limited with 34 exploration wells drilled in the last 15 years, but with only 9% success rate. Do Alaskans really want to struggle with this problem year after year, ad infinitum? Of course not.
The only solutions at hand are the LNG project and its gasline, which still appear to be uneconomic, or LNG imports, which are readily and quickly available, dependable on a long-term basis, and the provisions for which are already being put in place.
Anyone feelin’ the chill yet?
Great news.
Well done, Furie, Hilcorp and all the others that helped to make this happen.
This is welcome news after years of stonewalling by the Biden administration and cries of “environmental devastation or world-ending consequences” from the enviro-nazis. Lots of people in the private sector and in government working day and night to ensure Southcentral does not freeze in the dark.