RESOURCES: The Alaskan Gas Rush

First it was gold. Then came oil.

Now Alaska is on its way to a third great boom. Oil companies—notably Atlantic Richfield, Exxon and Sohio—have already found immense reserves of natural gas under the frozen tundra of the North Slope. Geologists believe that there may be as much as 300 trillion cu. ft. of gas in deposits in Alaska's Arctic; those deposits could supply 5% of U.S. annual demand (currently 22 trillion cu. ft.) when tapped, thus helping to head off the long-predicted severe shortage in U.S. gas supplies. In fact, the gas could begin to flow from the Alaskan...