Alaskan Oil Boom

Archive Report

Problems in North Slope Development

Oil Bonanza on Arctic Shore of 49th State

A new Frontier is taking shape on the chill northern coast of Alaska, a few hundred miles from the North Pole. Here, in an area known as the North Slope, frostbitten oil crews are working around the clock to exploit what geologists predict will be one of the world's most significant oil discoveries. Implications of the strike are enormous, both for the world oil market and for development of the nation's 49th state.

The oil industry's confidence in the Slope's potential was indicated by the results of a lease sale Sept. 10, 1969, in which oil companies agreed to pay the state government more than $900 million for drilling rights on 450,858 acres of ...

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