{"id":3118,"date":"2016-03-08T09:03:06","date_gmt":"2016-03-08T17:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/oil-company-shutting-down-alaska-operations\/"},"modified":"2016-03-08T09:03:06","modified_gmt":"2016-03-08T17:03:06","slug":"oil-company-shutting-down-alaska-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/oil-company-shutting-down-alaska-operations\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil company shutting down Alaska operations"},"content":{"rendered":"

KENAI<\/strong> \u2014 A Houston-based company that has been exploring oil and gas resources in the Cook Inlet area says it plans to leave the state because of low oil prices.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Apache Corporation said in an email the company would retain its Alaska assets but wouldn\u2019t seek renewal of the leases when they expire at the end of this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to the current downturn, Apache has had to significantly scale back operations and spending,\u201d spokesman Castlen Kennedy said. \u201cWe recently reduced our spending plans for 2016 by 60 percent from 2015 levels and are focusing our limited dollars on specific international opportunities and strategic testing in North America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apache\u2019s general manager for Alaska, John Hendrix, informed the state Legislature of the company\u2019s decision Thursday.<\/p>\n

Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, told reporters that the company had been pushed out of the state by the price of oil.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith oil prices the way they are, they don\u2019t really have much choice,\u201d Chenault said. \u201cThey can\u2019t keep investing money without a short term investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chenault said the company\u2019s move will likely have an impact on the local economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be just about anyone, all the way down to the restaurant down the street that\u2019s providing food (to the workers),\u201d Chenault said. \u201cEach time one of these smaller companies goes away, it affects everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apache Corporation, which has assets in other parts of the U.S. and Canada, had been engaged in exploratory projects north of Nikiski since 2010. During that time, the company experienced multiple delays and also considered other potential projects, such as extending the North Road.<\/p>\n

In its annual report to the Securities and Exchanges Commission, the company called 2015 \u201ca transitional year for Apache.\u201d It planned to counter the impacts of low oil prices by reducing activity and cutting overhead and operating costs, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Sen. Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, said in a statement she was disappointed the company was shutting down its Alaska operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope is that we, as a state, can set the right environment and conditions for our private economy to weather the economic downturn,\u201d Giessel said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Information from: (Kenai, Alaska) Peninsula Clarion, http:\/\/www.peninsulaclarion.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KENAI \u2014 A Houston-based company that has been exploring oil and gas resources in the Cook Inlet area says it plans to leave the state because of low oil prices. A spokesman for Apache Corporation said in an email the company would retain its Alaska assets but wouldn\u2019t seek renewal of the leases when they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-3118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3118"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}