Power Technology
Exxon plans pipeline
ExxonMobil is moving forward with its plans for the Point Thomson project, applying for a right-of-way lease for construction of a pipeline to carry liquids production from the remote field on Alaska's eastern North Slope. PTE Pipeline LLC, a Houston-based affiliate of ExxonMobil Pipeline Co., submi...
Apache talks Cook Inlet
Managers with Apache Corp. were in Anchorage the week of Aug. 22, and they were sounding pretty bullish about their new acreage in Southcentral Alaska's Cook Inlet basin. Apache's main interest is oil, although it's mindful of the ready local market for natural gas, said John Bedingfield, the co...
BLM to promote NPR-A
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's upcoming integrated activity plan and associated environmental impact statement for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, or NPR-A, will improve the level of certainty for oil and gas leasing in the reserve, and the planning process will provide a transpar...
Badami restart: Savant plans to bring six wells on line in BP-operated North Slope unit
The off-again, on-again story of BP's troubled Badami oil field, the most easterly of the developed fields on Alaska's North Slope, continues with a planned field restart in September. For the past two years independent oil company Savant Alaska and Arctic Slope Regional Corp. have been partnering w...
Harper waves Arctic flag; plans negotiations with Alaska to establish Beaufort boundary
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has just wrapped up his fifth annual summer swing through the Arctic, 'vigorously defending' Canada's sovereignty claims in the region, pitching a new Arctic foreign policy statement and making a case for a commercially-viable, environmentally-sound development...
Enstar: protection, not guarantees
A newly proposed gas supply contract between Enstar Natural Gas and ConocoPhillips would give the utility a fifth and sixth line of defense when extreme cold causes natural gas consumption to peak in Southcentral Alaska, but still leaves Enstar without a guaranteed supply. Under the non-firm cont...
Greenland oil hunt strikes gas
The hunt for commercial volumes of oil in offshore Greenland by Cairn Energy turned up natural gas in small quantities just as the Scottish-based explorer is negotiating the sale of its Indian subsidiary and Greenpeace is targeting Greenland oil and gas activities. Cairn said Aug. 24 it is encourage...
RCA wants TAPS tariff hearings in Alaska
State regulators say they'll hold joint hearings with their federal counterparts to discuss shipping rates on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, but only if the hearings are held in Alaska. The Regulatory Commission of Alaska and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are separately considering wh...
Unconditional approval for LNG plant?
The companies that own the liquefied natural gas terminal on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula want the federal government to extend their export license by two years, without any conditions on that extension. In an Aug. 17 letter to the U.S. Department of Energy, ConocoPhillips and Marathon challenged th...
Steady progress in the southern Kenai
Just a few years ago, oil and gas development on Alaska's southern Kenai Peninsula was a chicken and egg situation. Now it's poised to become a hatchery. When Armstrong Cook Inlet brings its North Fork oil and gas project into production early next year, it could be the push needed to bring seve...
Mitsubishi targets B.C. gas deposits
Japan has joined South Korea and China in a multi-billion dollar Asian parade into Western Canada's unconventional gas and oil sands region. Industrial conglomerate Mitsubishi formed a joint-venture August 24 with Penn West Energy Trust for an initial outlay of C$850 million to pay for assets an...
DEC collecting Chukchi data
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation in partnership with the University of Alaska School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences is collecting environmental data from the Chukchi Sea along the near-shore from Point Hope to Wainwright, DEC said Aug. 19. The $2.15-million study, part of a U.S....
Northern Waters Task Force panel named
On Aug. 23 Alaska Senate President Gary Stevens and House Speaker Mike Chenault announced the names of people appointed to serve on the Northern Waters Task Force. In March the Alaska Legislature passed a resolution mandating the formation of the task force, to assess and facilitate the creation of...
Linc files for well in Point MacKenzie area
The Alaska Coastal Management Program is reviewing Linc Energy's proposal to drill a well this fall in the Point MacKenzie area of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. The Australian company wants to drill the LEA No. 1 well to look for natural gas on ADL 390588, just north of Point MacKenzie Road across...
Canada's offshore in melting pot
The only deepwater well currently being drilled in Canadian waters is nearing completion in Newfoundland's Orphan Basin just ahead of what shapes up as a full-scale national debate on the future of offshore activity. Unlike the Great Barasway F-66 wildcat, its predecessor in the same program, the...
Oil Patch Bits: CMI holds annual customer appreciation barbecue
Construction Machinery Inc. held its annual customer appreciation barbecue on Aug. 19. The annual event, gives customers a chance to enjoy good food, this year provided by Sea Galley, and to preview equipment and speak with representatives from Volvo, Ingersoll Rand, Atlas Copco, Link-Belt, Skyjack,...
Oil Patch Bits: Crowley announces promotion of Evans and Otero
Crowley Maritime Corp said Aug. 19 that it is pleased to announce the promotion of Eric Evans and Tony Otero each to the role of vice president, finance and planning, supporting several different business groups within its holding company, Crowley Holdings Inc. 'Tony and Eric were promoted to their...
Mining News:Explorer expands metal-rich VMS at Niblack
Heatherdale Resources Ltd., a subsidiary of Hunter Dickinson Inc., is living up to its pledge to aggressively explore the Niblack copper-gold-silver-zinc project on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. Some 18,000 meters of drilling completed by the junior over the past year traced nearly...
Mining News: Japan plays key role in Alaska mining
Japan is an important player in Alaska's mining industry. The island nation imports more than US$125 million in minerals from the Far North state annually and Tokyo-based businesses own the Pogo gold mine and are making significant investments in other mining projects across the state. To fur...
Mining News: Columnist tips hat to mine developers
In the last month, several of Alaska's major metal mines reported strong operating numbers; one company released a preliminary economic assessment and three new mineral exploration companies acquired exploration interests in Alaska. While the functions of explorers and producers are quite differen...
Mining News: Resource quandary evokes famous poem
As we approach the 2010 primary election (which will be history by the time this article is read), it is worth pondering how rapidly Alaskans, like the crewmates of the Ancient Mariner, are plunging toward oblivion in the midst of a sea of plenty. The warnings of those who opposed statehood are no...
Mining News: Explorers trek to mining-friendly Yukon
THISTLE CREEK, Yukon Territory ? The Bell Jet Ranger helicopter just landed, while the A-Star unloaded passengers before powering down its engines on the other side of the creek. A third, smaller copter whined as its rotors buffeted bystanders with gusts of dust and debris during takeoff. Meanwhil...
Mining News: Miners rock first-ever 'Dawson Rocks'
DAWSON, Yukon Territory ? 'If we hold it, they will come,' reasoned Mike Burke, head of Mineral Services at the Yukon Geological Survey. True to his expectations, some 70 prospectors, geologists and junior companies flocked to a Front Street meeting hall here Aug. 11 for the first-ever 'Dawson Roc...
Mining News: Juniors pour millions into Yukon projects
DAWSON, Yukon Territory ? Hardrock mining explorers are capitalizing on unprecedented investor interest and going after paying gold, silver, copper-rich porphyry, lead-zinc and other metal deposits here with uncommon gusto this summer. A few years ago, a multimillion-dollar, single-season explo...
Mining News: Tower Hill unlikely to clone Fort Knox
Having completed a preliminary economic assessment for the Livengood project in early August, International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. has shifted its focus toward bringing the multimillion-ounce gold property into production. 'Our operational team is making excellent progress in advancing the pr...
Mining News: Constantine expands VMS, gears up for gold
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd.'s 7,500-meter drill program continues to unravel the complex geology of Glacier Creek Prospect at the Palmer copper-zinc-gold-silver project in Southeast Alaska. The South Wall and RW zones at Glacier Creek has been the focus of Constantine's drilling since the ju...
Mining News: Explorers seek new uranium discoveries
While intrepid juniors are busy pursuing another season of uranium exploration in Nunavut, the Government of Nunavut, in partnership with the federal government through the Canada-Nunavut Geoscience Office are participating in a major collaboration between government, industry and academia in hop...
In Memory of Sen. Ted Stevens: Stevens stood his ground for Alaska
Before Alaska could build an 800-mile long oil pipeline, sending Prudhoe Bay crude to market, there was a debt that needed repaying: land owed to Alaska Natives. It was a century old obligation that would nearly cost freshman Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens his job. Instead, he turned the nation's...
In Memory of Sen. Ted Stevens: Senator Stevens' support of Arctic research
Sen. Ted Stevens played a key role in the development of science facilities throughout Alaska, particularly in rural Alaska. He felt that solutions based on science could help solve many of the problems communities faced. He also understood that climate change was real, and happening quickly. I...
In Memory of Sen. Ted Stevens: Ted Stevens: An Alaska mentor
I braved the dusty AlCan Highway in my 1961 Ford station wagon after graduating from Colorado State in 1965. Rooming for a week in Anchorage's Parsons Hotel, I waved at the Beetles one afternoon in the alley behind the Hilton. That - along with Alaska's other attractions - hooked me on the place. Th...
Listening to Alaska
Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, was in listening mode when he appeared in Anchorage Aug. 26 at a BOEMRE forum to hear local views on Arctic Alaska offshore oil drilling safety and oil spill response. Bromwich is conducting a series of...
No production, no tax
BP is raising a new legal argument to try to limit the extent of damages the state can collect for the 2006 pipeline spills in Alaska's giant Prudhoe Bay oil field. The state wants back taxes on oil production that was 'lost' due to the spills and subsequent shut-ins to replace corroded pipelines. T...
LNG hopes evaporate
Ten green bottles hanging on the wall ...' goes the old song for children. Let's make that 'ten LNG projects' that once dangled the prospect of LNG imports to Canada for regasification into billions of cubic feet of gas for sale to North American customers by about 2015. Not anymore. One is up and run...
New effort to get gas to Interior led by Energia Cura of Fairbanks
After studying how to get reasonably priced energy to Alaska's Interior for 10 years, Fairbanks-based Energia Cura thinks there may now be enough demand to justify a small-bore, high-pressure gas line from the North Slope to the Fairbanks area. The firm began a nonbinding open season Aug. 26 to see...
Eni plans 52 wells for Nikaitchuq Schrader Bluff oil development
In preparation for the upcoming startup of its offshore Nikaitchuq unit, Eni Petroleum filed pool rules with the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on Aug. 18. The Italian major is planning a 52-well development program for the Nikaitchuq Schrader Bluff oil pool, the only reservoir the compa...
Cook Inlet tariff deal needs more time
The pending settlement of a tariff dispute on a west Cook Inlet oil pipeline is taking longer than expected to finalize. In a 'joint status report' submitted Aug. 30 to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, lawyers for Cook Inlet Energy LLC and Cook Inlet Pipe Line Co. said the firms had been 'overly...
Lawmakers up LNG exports concern
The State of Alaska backed liquefied natural gas exports in 2008 after ConocoPhillips and Marathon contractually agreed to meet local supply needs and other terms. Now that those companies want to continue exporting LNG through 2013, a group of Democratic state lawmakers believe they should also be...
Water for shale gas on BC front burner
British Columbia is a tinderbox, with record-setting heat triggering 300 wildfires and extreme fire warnings spread across 70 percent of the province. Now, the sustained drought conditions, with rainfall in the northeast at only 30 percent of normal, have prompted the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission, or...
Alyeska probe uncovers troubling pattern
The company that runs the trans-Alaska pipeline remains under federal investigation and is in the middle of major changes after an internal probe this summer raised serious concerns about how it handled a major pipeline leak and emergency shutdown in May. Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.'s internal revi...
Booze, gambling Alberta's new cash cow
Alberta Finance Minister Ted Morton has enjoyed one of those rare moments for someone in his position: Reporting that the province's 2010-11 budget is right on track after the first three months. Amazing, given that spending rose by C$609 million to battle floods, forest fires and mountain pine beet...
Rush to handle Bakken volumes
Two affiliates of Canadian pipeline company Enbridge have formed a joint venture to handle growing crude volumes from the Bakken and Three Forks formations, aiming for incremental capacity of 145,000 barrels per day in early 2013 raising capacity to 325,000 bpd, with the prospect of adding another 2...
AOGCC issues geothermal regulations
The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has published regulations dealing with geothermal resources; the regulations have an effective date of Sept. 30. The Legislature gave the commission authority over geothermal drilling earlier this year, and its regulations were amended to include: 'All...
Parnell names Koch to ANGDA board
Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell has named Rick Koch of Kenai to fill one of two empty seats on the seven-member board of the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Authority. In an Aug. 30 announcement the governor's office said Koch has served as the city manager for the City of Kenai since 2006; he previously was...
Poll shows B.C. public cool to pipelines
Public opposition to energy pipelines crossing British Columbia poses a growing challenge to two major projects by Enbridge and Kinder Morgan. An Angus Reid poll of B.C. residents released Aug. 27 shows 49 percent of respondents view Enbridge's Northern Gateway plan and Kinder Morgan's proposal to e...
Door open to beluga zone in Beaufort
The Canadian government is establishing the first marine protected area of its kind in the Canadian Arctic as a sanctuary for beluga whales to feed, socialize and raise their young in summer. But offshore oil and natural gas exploration and development has not been ruled out on the fringes of the zo...
Alaska's Kuparuk field remains formidable
Kuparuk is Prudhoe Bay's big little brother. Since its December 1981 startup, the Kuparuk River field on Alaska's central North Slope has produced 2.19 billion barrels of oil. That's an enormous volume, though it pales in comparison to neighboring Prudhoe, which has produced well over 11 billion bar...
Shell adds spill response capabilities
Unable to drill in Alaska's Beaufort and Chukchi seas during 2010 following a U.S. Department of the Interior outer continental shelf drilling moratorium in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, Shell is meantime beefing up its already substantial Arctic offshore response capabilities, in hope...
US boycott of Alberta oil sands spreads
Whether or not it is - as many government and industry leaders believe - a willful distortion of the facts for ulterior purposes, the spreading campaign against the Alberta oil sands is creating a siege mentality in the province. It started with U.S. retail giants Whole Foods and Bed Bath and Beyond...
CIRCAC ousts Shavelson from board
The Cook Inlet Regional Citizens Advisory Council said Sept. 1 that the group held a special board meeting to remove board member Bob Shavelson from the council. 'Robert Shavelson, who occupies the Environmental Interest seat, was removed for conduct that violated Cook Inlet RCAC policies,' the cou...
August ANS production up marginally
Alaska North Slope production averaged 540,947 barrels per day of crude oil in August, up marginally (0.1 percent) from a July average of 540,368 bpd. By month end, with Northstar back online, Alaska Department of Revenue data show all North Slope fields in production. In June and July, first Lisb...
FERC issues 10th semiannual report
In its 10th semiannual report to Congress on Alaska gas pipeline progress, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said both Denali and TransCanada Alaska have concentrated on preparing for and holding open seasons. Both project sponsors are deferring field work until project certainty is confirme...
AOGA hires new regulatory affairs rep
The Alaska Oil and Gas Association said Aug. 30 that it has hired Kate Williams as its regulatory affairs representative. Williams, an attorney, was born and raised in Juneau, and spent most of her career in public policy serving as staff to former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens. Williams was the senator's...
TG World gets loan using PPT credits
TG World Energy recently announced that it used Alaska tax credits to secure a loan. The Calgary-based independent, which is exploring several prospects on the North Slope as part of a joint venture led by Brooks Range Petroleum Corp., said on Aug. 30 that it secured a nine-month bridge loan of $1 m...
Buccaneer acquires additional interest
Buccaneer Alaska LLC has entered a binding agreement with Chevron Corp. to acquire the remaining 50 percent working interest (2,506 net acres) that the company does not already own in its North Middle Ground Shoal structure in Cook Inlet. Buccaneer said Aug. 24 that the acquisition gives the compan...
Armstrong gets 2 permits for NFU
Armstrong recently got permits for two exploration wells in Alaska's Cook Inlet basin. In mid-August, the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission gave the company permits to drill the North Fork Unit No. 14-25 and the North Fork Unit No. 32-35 wells. The wells would start at the North Fork Pad, w...
District court upholds moratorium ruling
Louisiana District Court Judge Martin Feldman has rejected a request by the U.S. Department of the Interior to dismiss as moot an appeal and associated injunction against Interior's moratorium on deepwater drilling on the outer continental shelf. In June Feldman had imposed the injunction against th...
Oil Patch Bits: Rain for Rent pump expansion now includes DV-325c
Rain for Rent said Aug. 23 that its expanding line of self-priming pumps now includes the DV-325c 12-inch centrifugal pump, specifically designed for efficient bypass pumping. The DV-325c has flows up to 8,500 GPM, suction lift up to 28 feet and maximum head of 220 feet. It also has the best solids...
Oil Patch Bits: Schlumberger Water Services Launches Diver-DCX
Schlumberger said Aug. 25 that its water-centric group, Schlumberger Water Services, released a new component in the Diver Suite of groundwater monitoring systems that expands the communication format of diver dataloggers. The Direct Communication eXchanger integrates diver dataloggers into SDI-12 c...
Oil Patch Bits: ExxonMobil lubricants supplier to Camping World
ExxonMobil said Aug. 26 that under agreement it will supply Mobil Delvac 130 Super and Mobil Delvac 1 ESP for diesel engines, as well as Mobil 1 and Mobil Clean products for gasoline engines, to Camping World's more than 75 locations nationwide. The company will also supply Camping World with Mobil-...
Bromwich says no Alaska moratorium
Currently there is no Department of the Interior moratorium that specifically bans oil drilling in the shallow water on the Alaska outer continental shelf, Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, told reporters at a media briefing during a BOE...

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