ConocoPhillips Asks Appeals Panel to Keep Oil Well Data Secret

ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. on Monday argued for the right to keep exploratory oil and gas well data confidential in a legal dispute with the state of Alaska over whether federal or state law applies to sensitive information about oil wells.

The company should be allowed to keep its well data secret under the terms of its 10-year federal lease within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, ConocoPhillips’ attorney Kevin Cuddy, of counsel at Stoel Rives LLP in Anchorage, argued before a US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit panel.

Onshore oil and gas wells within the NPR-A on Alaska’s North ...