MEDIA ADVISORY

TO:                     News Directors, Education and Resource Reporters

FROM:                 University Relations

SUBJECT:            UAF Hosts Energy Workshop

LOCATION:          Wood Center Carol Brown Ballroom on the UAF campus

DATE & TIME:     April 11 -12, 2002

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Arctic Energy and Technology Development Laboratory, the School of Mineral Engineering and the U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory are sponsoring a two-day workshop titled, "The Future of Fossil Energy in Alaska."

Participants will hear from experts on a number of topics related to oil, natural gas and coal as well as identify research needs concerning Alaska’s natural resource development.

On the first day of the workshop, there will be keynote presentations from industry and government experts on viscous oil, enhanced oil recovery, environmental aspects of hydrocarbon production in the Arctic, gas-to-liquid, CO2 sequestration, methane gas hydrate, natural gas pipeline permitting and coal washing and its future in Alaska.

Day two will be road-mapping sessions in the areas of oil, gas and coal to identify and prioritize the fossil energy research needs for Alaska.

The Arctic Energy Technology Development Laboratory at UAF was first advanced and funded by the Alaska congressional delegation in 2001 to conduct arctic energy research. As a result, a five-year cooperative agreement was signed with Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory. The laboratory is working closely with the power generation, coal, oil and natural gas industries to jointly design and fund research projects important to Alaska. DOE is supportive of fossil energy research to the order of several million dollars at UAF. Some of this effort involves multi-year projects housed in the School of Mineral Engineering research laboratories, addressing the state’s fossil energy needs.

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CONTACT: Godwin Chukwu, UAF Dept. of Petroleum Engineering at (907) 474-7748 or e-mail: ffgac@uaf.edu or Brent Sheets, National Energy Technology Laboratory’s Arctic Energy Office at (907) 452-2559 or e-mail: brent.sheets@netl.doe.gov.

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