PRUDHOE BAY, Alaska - Alaska is seeing a resurgence in oil development as Japan and other nations heavily dependent on Middle Eastern oil look to the northernmost U.S. state as part of efforts to diversify their energy sources.
Japan's need to secure alternative oil supplies has gained urgency during the U.S. war against Iran, after Tehran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a major waterway for global energy shipments.
The monthslong closure and the continuing uncertainty over who should control the strait have raised significant concerns over stable supplies of crude oil to Japan and other resource-poor countries.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi expressed hope during her meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington in March that the two countries will work together to expand the production of U.S.-sourced energy.
Trump at the time called Japan a "tremendous purchaser" of oil and gas from the United States, "in particular Alaska," acknowledging the shorter shipping route across the Pacific.
A tanker carrying Alaskan crude oil arrived at a refinery near Tokyo on June 7, marking the first shipment from Alaska to Japan since the start of the U.S.-Iran conflict in February.
In Deadhorse, Alaska, lies the Prudhoe Bay oil field -- known as the largest in North America -- in the Arctic Ocean-facing North Slope region.
A vast network of oil rigs and pipelines stretches across the snowy tundra, which is estimated to contain about 13 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
In early June, with outside temperatures hovering around freezing, workers were seen driving on the gravel roads to worksites throughout the day. The sunset did not arrive until after 11 p.m.
Patrick Myers, 28, who delivers equipment to oil sites, said work at Prudhoe Bay is "much busier than it's been in the last year."
The Washington state resident was at the end of a three-week shift, the typical duration for oil workers on the North Slope. Hotels in the area serve as dormitories for workers such as Myers before they return to their homes across the United States.
He said he delivered a significant amount of equipment to the site over the past winter, after the U.S. oil and gas company ConocoPhillips was permitted to conduct exploratory drilling there for the first time in five years.
In a late 2025 estimate, issued prior to the war that has disrupted global oil markets, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected Alaskan crude oil production would increase roughly 13 percent in 2026 to reach some 477,000 barrels per day -- up from about 422,000 in 2025 -- in the largest annual increase since the 1980s after decades of decline.
On Trump's first day back in office in 2025, he signed an executive order to expedite permits and leases for energy projects on federal and state lands.
The measure reversed a 2021 order issued by the administration of then President Joe Biden that paused oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain. It also rescinded certain lease cancellations impacting energy development in the area.
Additionally, Trump's order prioritized the advancement of an Alaska liquefied natural gas project. A new natural gas pipeline under construction will run around 1,300 kilometers from Prudhoe Bay to Nikiski port in south-central Alaska on the Pacific coast.
Two of Japan's largest energy companies, Jera Co. and Tokyo Gas Co., signed letters of intent last year to purchase a combined total of 2 million tons of LNG annually from Glenfarne, the majority owner of the project.
Companies in South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand have also signed preliminary agreements, according to Glenfarne.
About 100 km west of Deadhorse, the isolated Inupiat village of Nuiqsut -- population about 500 -- is caught between the rewards of the oil development and its disruptions to nature and their way of life.
The Inupiat, one of the major Alaska Native groups that make up the state's 160,000 indigenous population, engage in subsistence hunting and store caribou, fish and whale meat for the subzero winter months.
One of the notable environmental impacts has been the changing of migration patterns due to the expansion of oil development, forcing hunters to go much further out to secure their catches, said former Nuiqsut Mayor Rosemary Ahtuangaruak.
Revenues from Alaskan crude, however, have also yielded some benefits for the indigenous people.
After the discovery of the Prudhoe Bay oil field in 1968, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was passed in 1971, in part to extract the oil and construct the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, which runs from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez port about 190 km east of Anchorage.
Under the settlement, Alaska Natives received land and financial compensation through regional and village corporations, establishing a system through which they could benefit from oil development projects.
Tax revenue from the oil field has helped finance infrastructure in the village, including schools. Since the early 2000s, the village has also received natural gas through a pipeline connected to a ConocoPhillips production pad, giving residents access to cheaper utilities.
Ahtuangaruak, a vocal opponent of oil exploration projects in the region, maintains that such development will not serve the people's best interests.
"Now you've got people who are fighting for dollars per barrel or dollars per acre, over the importance of traditional cultural uses in sustaining our communities," she said.
With Japan seeking to diversify crude oil imports amid the U.S.-Iran conflict, the former mayor counseled against being overly dependent on others for one's crucial needs.
"Becoming dependent on other countries to provide for your country's needs is only going to increase your need to create a wealth of resource to trade for that," she added.
