Petersburg Pilot -

ANCHORAGE – A Texas petroleum drilling company announced Tuesday it has made a large-scale oil discovery off Alaska’s North Slope.

Dallas-based Caelus Energy Alaska LLC announced a find of 6 billion barrels of light oil on its state leases in the Arctic Ocean waters of Smith Bay about 450 miles northwest of Fairbanks.

Chief Operating Officer Jim Musselman called the discovery exciting for the state, which receives a majority of its revenue from the oil industry.

“It has the size and scale to play a meaningful role in sustaining the Alaskan oil business over the next three or four deca...