I've been following Donkel's posts for a while, and commenting somewhat counter to him, my being against the tax credits and SB-21.  However, I decided to look into the matter of the smaller oil companies.  While I'm still against the tax credits and SB-21, I'm beginning to see some of his points.  It has evidentially been the small oil companies that have proven most of the oil and gas deposits in Alaska, and it has been the giant oil companies who appear to have bought their way in, and elbowed the small companies away from what should have belonged to them by right of first come, first served.  To top it off, the small companies are in the practice of maximizing the oil and gas reserves, pumping slower, so as to recover the most possible, out of each field.  The big companies seem to be high-grading the leases, pumping so fast, that they suck a "void" within the fields ... which leaves a lot of what otherwise could have been recoverable, had they pumped a little slower.  (more)