Alaskan Crude Corporation v. State, Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission

OPINION

MAASSEN, Justice.

I. INTRODUCTION

Alaskan Crude Corporation submitted an application to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to reopen the Burglin 383-1 well, a suspended well on the North Slope, to explore for oil and gas. Arguing that it was highly unlikely that oil from the well would rise to the surface unassisted, Alaskan Crude made a series of requests to the Commission to be exempted from oil discharge response requirements or, in the alternative, to have the requirements reduced. The Commission made successive reductions to the technical flow-rate assessments and the…