The risk-taking geologist who discovered a giant Alaska oil field in 2013 that companies had long overlooked is taking another stab at exploration drilling on the North Slope, this time on federal land west of existing development.
Bill Armstrong, owner of Colorado-based North Slope Energy, in August filed a plan with state environmental regulators, spelling out his intention to drill two wells into a prospect known as West Castle.
The site is located in the northeastern section of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, more than 50 miles southwest of the village of Nuiqsut.
