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NARUC, IOGCC, CONSUMER ENERGY ALLIANCE, AOGA,AOGCC, RCA and more...
2009
LINKS: FERC Reports
to Congress, 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7....;
USGS Arctic Gas Estimates;
MMS hearings:
RDC,
Our NGP,
AJOC,
DH,
ADN,
KTUU;
Enstar Bullet Line: Map and News Links;
ANGDA;
Alaska Energy Forum;
Prosperity Alaska
2008 LINKS:
Shell Alaska OCS Study;
Mackenzie Gas Project EIS;
Join the
Alaska Gas Pipeline Blog
Discussion;
Governor Sarah Palin's AGIA Links;
2007 ACES tax bill links;
Department of Revenue 2007 ACES
tax documents;
2007 ACES tax Presentations;
2007 ACES tax news;
Alaska Gas Pipeline Training and
Jobs;
Gas Pipeline and Economic
Development; Andrew Halcro;
Bjørn Lomborg;
FERC's Natural Gas Website Links
WASHINGTON:
Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Act;
History of H.R. 4;
DOE Energy Bill Position, 6-02;
Daschle-Bingaman Energy Bill
(Alaska, Sec. 1236 & tax credit, Sec. 2503 &
H.R. 4 Conferees),
Tax Credit;
See amendments, "Energy
Policy Act of 2002";
"Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline Act
of 2001 (Draft)" &
Background Paper,
8-9-01;Alaska
Legislature Joint Committee position;
Governor's position;
Governor's 10-Point Plan;
Anadarko Analysis;
U.S. Senate Energy Committee
Testimony, 10-2-01 -
text version; U.S.
Senate Energy Committee Testimony, 9-14-00;
Report on the Alaska Natural Gas
Transportation Act of 1971, prepared by staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission, 1-18-01
ALASKA:
1-23-03,
Governor
Frank Murkowski's State of the State Speech;
2002 DRAFT Recommendations to 2003
Legislature;
'02 Alaska Legislation;
Alaska Highway Natural Gas
Pipeline Policy Council;
Joint
Legislative Gas Pipeline Committee; 9-01 Alaska Models:
Canadian Routes,
LNG,
GTL;
HR 4 Story;
Cook Inlet Supply-Demand Report:
AEDC;
Commonwealth North Investigation
&
Our Article;
Report: Backbone;
Legislature Contacts;
State Gas Pipeline Financing Study;
5-02 Alaska Producer Update;
Kenai: "Oil & Gas Industry Issues
and Activities Report, 11-02";
Alaska Oil & Gas Tax Structure;
2-27-02 Royalty Sale Background;
Alaska Gas Pipeline Office
opens, 7-01, and
closes, 5-02;
Betty Galbraith's
1997-1998 Chronology.
Our copy.
CANADA:
1-10-03, "Arctic Gas Pipeline
Construction Impacts On Northern Transp."-Transport Canada-PROLOG Canada
Inc.-The Van Horne Institute;Hill
Times Reports, 8-30-02;
9-30-02, Cons. Info. Requirements;
CBC Archives, Berger Commission;
GNWT Economic Impact Study,
5-13-02;
GNWT-Purvin & Gertz Study, 5-8-02;
Alberta-Alaska MOU 6-02;
Draft Pan- Northern Protocol for
Oil and Gas Development;
Yukon Government Economic Effects:
4-02 &
PPT;
Gas Pipeline Cooperation Plan
Draft &
Mackenzie Valley Environmental
Impact Review Board;
Mackenzie Valley Pipeline MOU
Draft, 6-01;
FirstEnergy Analysis: 10-19-01;
Integrated Delta Studies;
National Post on Mackenzie
Pipeline, 1-02;Northern
Pipeline Act;
Haida
Nation v. British Columbia;
Indian Claims Commission;
Skeena Cellulose decision --
aboriginal consultations required, 12-02;
Misc. Pipeline Studies '02
COMPANIES:
Alaska Gas Producers Pipeline Team
Newsletter, 7-27-01;
APG Newsletter: 5-02,
7-02
&
9-02;
ArctiGas NEB PIP Filing Background;
NRGPC Newsletter: Fall-02;
4-02 ArctiGas Reduces Field Work;
BP's Natural Gas Page;
Enbridge Perspective;
Foothills Perspective;
Williams Perspective;
YPC Perspective, 7-02
MEDIA
REFERENCE: Alaska Journal of
Commerce; Alaska Inc. Magazine; Anchorage Daily News; Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation; Fairbanks Daily News Miner, Juneau Empire; Northern News Services;
Oil & Gas Reporter; Petroleum News Alaska; Whitehorse Star, etc.
EXTENDED CONFERENCE NEWS:
Alaska
Support Industry Alliance,
Anchorage
Chamber of Commerce,
Canadian Institute,
Insight Information,
Inuvik Petroleum Shows,
International Association of Energy Economists,
Resource
Development Council for Alaska,
Ziff Energy Group
LEST WE FORGET!
| |
Northern Gas Pipelines: Please scroll
down for December 2008 news
12-31-08. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!! *
Xinhua Financial News. A regulatory panel weighing a proposal for a
C$16.2 billion ($12.5 billion) pipeline to ship gas from Canada's Arctic will
not complete its report for one year, spelling another in a long list of delays
for the embattled project.
12-30-08.
PR Newswire for APEX. One possible roadblock to the Mackenzie Valley
Pipeline moving forward appears to have been resolved. The Deh Cho First
Nations, of approximately 4,500 people, claim traditional territory which
amounts to about 40 per cent of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline route, were the
only group not to sign on to the deal. *
ADN.
The trans-Alaska oil pipeline has reopened after an overnight shutdown....
*
ADN by Wesley Loy. Investigators searched Monday for the cause
of a fire that seriously damaged the Petro Star Inc. refinery in Valdez.
12-29-08.
WWF-Canada.
For many years, there have been plans to build a gas pipeline in the Mackenzie
Valley. Thirty years ago, NWT residents opposed plans for a pipeline. Now, many
feel the region is ready for industrial development – but only if it’s done
right, stewarding the land and resources for future generations. WWF agrees with
this principle. WWF-Canada believes a network of protected areas must be
established before natural gas reserves are developed, and that network must
protect key wildlife habitats and culturally significant areas and adequately
represent all the distinct natural regions that will be affected by development.
A gas pipeline will affect sixteen of the Mackenzie Valley’s distinct natural
regions – only five are currently represented in protected areas.
(Comment: An effective obstructionist strategy is to say, "We agree it can be
done, but only under conditions with which we agree." Effectively, then,
all of the time-tested, due-process, existing and demanding regulatory processes
can be ignored as WWF obstructs by complaining that to 'do it right' another
laundry list of requirements must be imposed on any project sponsors. Like
America, Canada is in danger of allowing minority voices to lead it into
political and economic paralysis. -dh) *
CBC News. Two organizations that helped created a panel to review the
proposed Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline are frustrated with how long that
panel is taking to prepare its report and demanding a date for the report's
release. *
Point Thomson Delays, by Wesley Loy, ADN. That Point Thomson,
one of the world's largest undeveloped discoveries, has sparked such a court
battle makes sense considering its stupendous value. At today's oil and
gas prices, the field holds recoverable resources worth roughly $55 billion.
That's more than triple the bailout President Bush announced for the U.S.
automobile industry on Dec. 19. *
ADN by Michael Carey. Ed Dankworth, who died Dec.
6 at 80, made news in Alaska for half a century as a police officer, legislator,
lobbyist and entrepreneur. In every incarnation, he rose to heights he wouldn't
have imagined when he was just a Texas boy who dreamt of starring in cowboy
movies: commander of the Alaska State Troopers, co-chair of the Senate Finance
Committee, the state's most influential lobbyist, businessman successful in
Alaska tourism.
12-28-08.
Celcias.com. Anderson says it's unlikely that carbon emissions
levels can be kept below 650 parts per million (ppm) by the end of the century,
since these levels are already well over 380ppm and rising at 2ppm per year.
Additionally, natural control mechanisms like carbon sequestration in oceans and
permafrost appear to be past their coping levels. Ocean acidity, a direct effect
of carbon emissions, has already risen
10 times faster than predicted. The
world's oceans can't harbor any more carbon without ecological meltdown.
The carbon sequestered in permafrost is now beginning to be released - for the
first time in 11,000 years - as a result of global warming, most notably in the
Canadian Arctic and Western Siberia. As the Arctic ice melts, the darker water
raises temperatures, creating a negative feedback loop of warming. Siberian
warming, first documented in
2005 , threatens to release not only
long-pent-up carbon dioxide, but methane as well. These gases, according to the
online journal Bioscience, add up to
1,500 billion tonnes of gases , or twice
the amount of greenhouse gas emissions already present in the atmosphere.
(Comment: though the U.S. can little influence any outcome due to
the overwhelming effect of oceans, permafrost, China and India on carbon
production, politicians will likely push U.S. ratepayers closer to poverty in a
misguided attempt to solve a world problem with American family treasure.
The carbon taxing and carbon trading mechanisms are nothing more than complex
and expensive ways to have government futilely attempt to manipulate climate
change on the backs of U.S. citizens. But for those who invest in the
North American natural gas market the result should be positive as increasing
political pressures force more and more power generation to convert to natural
gas. -dh) *
MSM Monitor.
I found it offensive when it is all of 24 degrees outside and another storm
headed our way. I may stop posting environment stories. Frankly, I've got better
things to do with my time than constantly rebut this deceptive and malicious
agenda-pushing garbage. Please see
Climate Change Causes Power Blackouts and related links within
for more as well as the
AmeriKan MSM's Long, Slow, Ceaseless Fart. "Going with climate's
flow; Environmentalists shift approach, planning to adapt to nature's changes"
by Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff | December
26, 2008 Environmental advocates, wildlife officials, and land
trusts charged with protecting the natural world are beginning to take a new
approach to climate
change: rather than focus only on stopping it, they are also thinking
about how to adapt to what's coming....
Yeah, it
has gone from GLOBAL WARMING to CLIMATE CHANGE
12-27-08.
Slave River Journal, by Shawn Bell. The re-elected
Conservative government’s Speech from the Throne delivered promising news for
the NWT’s proposed Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline.
The Nov. 19 speech highlighted the goal of reducing regulatory barriers to
extend a natural gas pipeline through the North as one of the government’s key
initiatives. “It’s very rare that a specific project gets mentioned in the
Speech from the Throne,” said Tim Coleman, director of the Mackenzie
Valley Pipeline Office. “So that’s a good sign.”
12-26-08.
Hall of Record Blog. "Energy ministers from 12 of the world’s
leading exporters of natural gas met in Moscow on Tuesday to create a producers’
group that consumers fear could develop into an Opec-style cartel.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, who chaired the meeting, warned
that the era of “cheap gas” was coming to an end, and said members of the group
would co-operate to make the gas market "predictable".
*
Polar Warming.
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is receiving greater attention as a possible
cheaper alternative to northern gas pipeline projects e.g. Mackenzie Valley Gas
Project. Projects such as the Mackenzie Valley pipeline have been in the
planning stages for years — requiring numerous regulatory approvals and capital
expenditures.
12-25-08.
Merry Christmas!
PNA via ADN. State legislators mulling whether a tax rewrite
could be needed if North Slope natural gas starts flowing to Outside markets
learned that gas production from state-owned fields could actually reduce state
tax revenue.
12-24-08.
MOSCOW, December 23 (RIA
Novosti) - The headquarters of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum will be set
up in Doha, the capital of Qatar, the country's deputy prime minister said
Tuesday. "An official ceremony of filling the first tanker with liquefied
natural gas is scheduled for February 19," said Alexander Medvedev,
deputy chairman of the Gazprom management committee and head of Gazprom Export.
*
Book Clubs at SAPL. Harry Boyd, a
hard-bitten refugee from failure in Toronto television, has returned to a small
radio station in the Canadian North. There, in Yellowknife, in the summer of
1975, he falls in love with a voice on air, though the real woman, Dido Paris,
is both a surprise and even more than he imagined. Dido and Harry are part
of the cast of eccentric, utterly lovable characters, all transplants from
elsewhere, who form an unlikely group at the station. Their loves and longings,
their rivalries and entanglements, the stories of their pasts and what brought
each of them to the North, form the centre. One summer, on a canoe trip four of
them make into the Arctic wilderness they find the balance of love shifting,
much as the balance of power in the North is being changed by the proposed
Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline....
12-23-08.
PNA via ADN. State legislators mulling whether a tax rewrite
could be needed if North Slope natural gas starts flowing to Outside markets
learned that gas production from state-owned fields could actually reduce state
tax revenue. *
Scandinavian Oil and Gas Magazine. Waterborne Energy projected
today that “winds of change” will bring a major shift to the global LNG market
in 2009. The Houston-based consulting firm that tracks and analyzes LNG
markets expects global LNG production to significantly increase next year, and
international spot prices to drop accordingly. “While 2009 will start
slow, we expect a 30 percent rise in total LNG production worldwide by year
end,” says Steve Johnson, president of Waterborne Energy. The firm
monitors, analyzes and reports on global shipments of LNG.
*
PNA. State regulators today decided not to approve a pair of gas
supply contracts between Enstar and two Cook Inlet producers, but allowed Enstar
to enter the contracts and pass the cost of the gas on to its customers on a
temporary and possibly refundable basis. *
PNA
via ADN. The third of four Prudhoe Bay replacement transit pipelines
has gone into service, and the fourth and final replacement line is scheduled to
be in service by Christmas, BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said.
 12-22-08.
ADN. With oil prices currently below $30 a barrel, the Palin
administration's prediction that prices will average $74 during the year that
starts July 1 is unrealistic, said state Rep. Mike Hawker (Photo-l). The
state could face a multibillion-dollar revenue shortfall for that year, and the
governor should revise her proposed budget, said Hawker, who will co-chair the
budget-writing House Finance Committee next year. "The governor's budget
anticipates the most optimistic circumstances," Hawker said. "We also have to be
honest with the people of Alaska and look at perhaps the more difficult
circumstances o f
significant deficits, which we will face if the price of oil does not rise
rapidly." (Also, see
The
Alaska Standard.) *
ADN
Editorial re: state energy plan (See 12-08 story below). The Palin
Administration will take another month before rolling out its statewide energy
"plan," and that's probably a good thing. To date, the planning effort led by
state energy coordinator Steve Haagenson has not been getting good
reviews. *
ADN on
Flint Hill Refinery by Tim Bradner (NGP Photo-r). The Flint Hills
refinery near Fairbanks is having problems and may be up for sale. The state is
mulling several options to help keep the refinery open. State investment is a
possibility being discussed. (Author note: The perfect storm
for Alaska is brewing amid: a national recession; oil and gas demand destruction
accompanied by lower prices/state revenue; relentless lowering of Alaska
production, exacerbating revenue declines; increasing cost of Alaska state and
municipal governments; increased Alaska energy costs; increasing Alaska tax and
regulatory burdens on the oil industry, the wealth producer; reluctance or
inability of Alaska administrators to resolve state/producer disputes in Cook
Inlet and Point Thomson; and, now, unrealistic budgeting in the face of a
predictable, approaching storm. The bitter icing on Alaska's cake is the lack
of spending discipline (fiscal plan), lack of an energy plan and lack of an
economic stimulus plan. The ship of state is rudderless and each day finds its
hapless citizens further off course and closer to greater hardship if not a real
grounding. It is time to wake up. If politicians truly grasped the imminent
and irreversible danger of this situation, they would be convening a special,
Legislative session even during this most special of seasons.
-dh)
12-20-08.
PNA
by Gary Park. Word that the Joint Review Panel, responsible for
examining the environmental and
socio-economic aspects of the C$16.2 billion venture, needs another year to
complete its work has pushed those hoping to benefit from Arctic resource
development past the breaking point.
Northwest Territories Premier Floyd Roland told the Globe and Mail he
is “really quite concerned. … It’s a delay on another delay and we’ve not got a
clear answer as to why. It has shaken the confidence of the business community.”
Nellie Cournoyea (NGP Photo, 6-03), a former
NWT premier
and now chairman of the Inuvialuit Regional Corp., said the latest splutter is
“devastating. … It’s incomprehensible that a process like this would take so
long.”
12-19-08.
ADN.
Shell Oil has canceled plans to drill for oil and do other exploration in the
Beaufort Sea next year. (KTUU
Video) *
Reverse Vampyr. James O’Brien, an emeritus professor at Florida
State University who studies climate variability and the oceans, said that
global climate change is very important for the country and that Americans need
to make sure they have the right answers for policy decisions. But he said he
worries that scientists and policymakers are rushing to make changes based on
bad science. “Global climate change is occurring in many places
in the world,” O’Brien said. “But everything that’s attributed to global
warming, almost none of it is global warming.” He took issue with the AP
article’s assertion that melting Arctic ice will cause global sea levels to
rise. “When the Arctic Ocean ice melts, it never raises sea level
because floating ice is floating ice, because it’s displacing water,” O’Brien
said. “When the ice melts, sea level actually goes down. I call it a fourth
grade science experiment. Take a glass, put some ice in it. Put water in it.
Mark level where water is. Let it [melt]. After the ice melts, the sea level
didn’t go up in your glass of water. It’s called the Archimedes Principle.”
He called sea level changes a "major scare tactic used by the global warming
people."
12-18-08.
KTUU by Jason Moore. ...the
company known as Denali is planning to move to an office
building in Midtown Anchorage that will hold a big sign on the side that says
"Denali, the Alaska Gas Pipeline." The move comes a dozen days after the
state awarded TransCanada the exclusive AGIA license to build the pipeline.
The sign there says Denali's owners, BP and ConocoPhillips, are still in the
game. "This is a really important moment for Denali because we're stamping
ourselves on the community here," Denali President Bud Fackrell said (NGP
Photo). *
Arctic Focus. According to Denali President Bud Fackrell, the company
sees what is happening as competition between them and TransCanada, rather than
a race to see who will get there first. “I don’t view this as a race. Clearly
we’re in competition with TransCanada but our standard is we’re going to do it
the right way. We may beat them to doing an open season or we may not but
fundamentally we wanted the very best cost estimate we can for our open season.”
If it were a competition based on money spent, then Denali would be winning.
The company shelled out $60 million on the proposed project this year and plans
on double that amount in 2009. Fackrell says that Denali has pre-filed
with the federal Energy Regulatory Commission for approval of their oil project
along with filing papers with the BLM to secure right of way permits. This
filing comes on the heel of field work the company had done along the proposed
gas line route.
12-17-08.
NNS by Guy Quenneville. SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Reaction to
news that the Joint Review Panel wil l
not have its report on the embattled Mackenzie Gas Project ready until December
2009 has been uniformly negative and in some cases incredulous. "You've
got to be kidding" was the initial reaction of Ann Marie Tout, president
of the NWT Chamber of Commerce. (Randy Ottenbreit-NGP Photo, 3-02,
Calgary-Imperial Oil's development executive for the Mackenzie Gas Project,
speaks about the embattled pipeline at the Inuvik Petroleum Show in June.
Project proponents and oil and gas industry leaders were unanimously
disappointed with news that the Joint Review Panel will not have its report
ready until December 2009.) *
Alaska
Gas Pipeline Blog. According to Marty Rutherford, deputy
commissioner of natural resources:
"We believe it's only a matter of time until all the parties come together to
accomplish our mutual goal". What does TransCanada have the the Denali
Pipeline needs? Of course TransCanada needs money, actually more US taxpayer
money to build the gas line and gas to fill it with. The North Slope producers
have the financing and they have the gas. And while we're penning a happy
note to Santa asking for a pipeline merger go ahead and ask for $140/bbl oil and
$2/gal diesel. Dream on Marty, and happy holidays!
12-16-08.
ADN by Eric Lidji (NGP Photo, 12-9-08). "We believe it's
only a matter of time until all the parties
come together to accomplish our mutual goal," Marty Rutherford, deputy
commissioner of natural resources, said at the recent "Energy in Alaska"
conference hosted by Law Seminars International in Anchorage.
* Also, on 12/9,
see
South-central Alaska Natural Gas Storage/Supply Issues: A Ratepayer’s Review of
Our Gas and Electric Challenges, By Dave Harbour,
Publisher, Northern Gas
Pipelines. *
ADN,
Alan Bailey regarding Enstar's gas supply.
12-08-08.
Calgary Herald by Shaun Polczer. Mackenzie Valley Pipeline stalled
for another year?
12-08-08. NOTE: Two big events this
week. 1.
ADN.
Anchorage Chamber of Commerce "Make It Monday"
 Forum
presents Steve Haagenson
(NGP Photo-r)
with the Alaska Energy Authority on the state's long-term energy plan, noon to 1
p.m., Dena'ina Convention Center. RSVP by 9 a.m. Monday at 272-2401 or
www.anchoragechamber.org. 2. Your author will be addressing the
Energy In Alaska Symposium on Tuesday but the event begins today. I'll
be discussing South Central Alaska Natural Gas Supply and Storage Issues.
*
Alaska Journal of Commerce, by Tim Bradner.
BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. will spend $1.2 billion on capital
projects in Alaska in 2009, a 30 percent increase over the $900 million spent in
2008, a company spokesman said Dec. 2. The increase comes even as BP suspends
some marginal Prudhoe Bay field projects because of lower crude oil prices and
state
tax effects. * KTUU story with
VIDEO. "This AGIA license is not a
commitment to do anything other than process a whole lot of paper," Rep. Mike
Hawker said. State Rep. Jay Ramras was at Friday's AGIA license
signing, and has been skeptical of the deal since the start. "I was
careful to stand in the back of the room," Ramras said. "I'm one of the
non-believers." Ramras still believes as he did the day the Legislature
approved the TransCanada license that AGIA will fail. "Until we get the
three producers to sit down with the state and the country of Canada, we're no
where," Ramras said. "In my opinion, all we've done is waste a lot of time and
some growing fraction of $500 million." Radio talk show host and former
candidate for governor, Andrew Halcro (NGP Photo-l) has been the most
vocal critic of the governor's gasline plans. "What's amazing to me is we
have granted, not only the $500 million, but an exclusive contract which could
last for as long as 10 years to a company who's CEO has already said publicly
this project cannot move forward until Exxon is happy," Halcro said.
*
Mackenzie Gas Project EIS. *
PNA.
The game of poker over
Cook Inlet
natural gas
prices continued Dec. 1 when Enstar
Natural
Gas Co. told the
Regulatory Commission of Alaska that
ConocoPhillips and
Marathon
Oil Co. have refused to amend new gas supply contracts with Enstar to set
gas prices below a price cap specified by RCA in an Oct. 31 order. The
commission had issued the order as a ruling in its review of Enstar’s new
contracts with the two Cook Inlet gas producers. *
Sarah Palin Book Sales - Introduction - Sarah takes on Big Oil .
*
ADN
by Tom Kizzia. Arctic oil and gas
exploration, federal subsistence protection and funding for rural development
are among the Alaska concerns that could see sudden policy shifts in the new
Obama administration.
12-07-08.
London
Free Press.
A panel examining the Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline project says it will
take another year to complete its long-awaited review in the latest setback for
the multibillion-dollar plan that originally hoped to have gas flowing in 2009.
* Calgary Herald by Charles Frank. On
Wednesday, federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice said he expected a
key report from the environmental panel reviewing the $16-billion project to
come forward sometime this spring. "I'm actually very optimistic (the
controversial project will go ahead) because a lot of the work that needed to be
done has now been done," he said. On Friday, however, panel chair
Robert Hornal announced the long-awaited report would not be finished before
December 2009. *
APRN - Audio download by Libby Casey. THIS IS A GOOD REVIEW OF
DRUE PEARCE AND HER PIPELINE COORDINATOR'S OFFICE DURING THE BUSH-OBAMA
TRANSITION. The future of TransCanada’s gas pipeline project is far from
certain. Both the TransCanada project and the Denali Project, which is being
driven by BP and ConocoPhillips, will now work their way through the complex
federal regulatory process.
12-06-08.
FDNM.
While the governor plans to be in Fairbanks today to sign a $500-million deal on
the gas pipeline, the key decisions on whether the project will be built are not
controlled by TransCanada. Just ask Hal Kvisle, the chief executive
officer of TransCanada, who also is expected to be in Fairbanks for the signing
ceremony at the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center. Speaking
with stock analysts in late October, he said the “single most important step” in
moving the gas line forward is what he hopes will be “fruitful discussions with
the existing producers on the North Slope.”
12-05-08.
Alaska Dispatch, by Tony Hopfinger (Photo-l with author, 2-25-02).
Given that the Big Three oil
companies must first commit to the TransCanada
project, and that they will almost certainly demand knowing the tax structure
before doing so, why are we giving this Canadian company $500 million?
*
FDNM by Dermot Cole. Longtime Fairbanksan Rick Solie
is taking a new job in Anchorage as director
of government and community affairs for Denali — the Alaska Gas Pipeline, a
joint project of BP and ConocoPhillips. *
Utilipoint by Jon Brock (Photo-l) I found the news that Jeff
Bingaman, United States Senator from New Mexico and Chairman of the Senate
Energy and Natural Resources Committee, would be addressing an energy summit in
my home city of Albuquerque too interesting to pass up.
*
AP.
The company owning a North Pole refinery is reviewing its options
for the facility's operations as market conditions worsen.
*
AP.
The head of Shell Alaska says the company
may appeal a recent federal court ruling that has delayed its plans to drill
exploratory wells in the Beaufort Sea next year. The company's general
manager, Pete Slaiby, says the company was disappointed, particularly
after investing $2.5 billion over the last three years on leases and operations
in the state. *
ANGDA.
Yesterday ANGDA issued a press release announcing the EIS contract award to URS
Alaska. When completed, Administrative Clerk Leah Burkes reports
that ANGDA will have all of the State and Federal permits required to build the
Beluga to Fairbanks gas pipeline. “We are happy to
be starting the last major permitting process on the Beluga to Fairbanks
pipeline. We look forward to working with the Corps as the lead agency and URS
as the independent third party contractor under the Corps’ direction. ANGDA
will fully participate in the public scoping and hearing process, and looks
forward to hearing the public’s input,” said Harold Heinze, ANGDA CEO.
12-04-08.
KTVA, Grace
Jang (NGP Photo-l).
Seward could be the first
city in the South-central Alaska to face 
rolling blackouts.
*
ADN.
The Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority is
spending up to $250,000 for a project manager to bridge the gap between years
when data is being collected and major engineering occurs on a pipeline that
could branch off a main pipeline and deliver North Slope natural gas to
Southcentral Alaskans, according to Petroleum News. *
News Canada. The proposed $16.2 billion Mackenzie gas project in
the Arctic will still go ahead, despite lengthy regulatory delays and prolonged
talks over fiscal breaks for the line's backers. Construction of the
Mackenzie Valley pipeline, which would carry gas to markets in Canada and the
U.S., has been repeatedly delayed. "I'm actually very optimistic because a
lot of the work that needed to be done has now been done," Environment
Minister Jim Prentice said (NGP Press Conference Photo, Calgary-r).
* Green
Party. The Tar Sands are a triple bottom line (economic, ecological
and social) failure that is creating substantially greater problems than it can
ever hope to resolve.
12-03-08.
FDNM by Rena Delbridge.
Gov. Sarah Palin plans to be in Fairbanks on Friday as the state signs
off on a natural gas pipeline license.
*
CBC.
It has been more than one year since the Joint Review Panel for the Mackenzie
Gas Project, which is evaluating the environmental and socio-economic impacts of
the proposed gas pipeline, held its last round of public hearings in November
2007. The panel has never specified when its report and recommendations
would be ready, other than to say it will be finished sometime in 2009.
"When you listen to some people in the streets, they're disappointed in how long
it's taking," said Frank Pokiak, chairman of the Inuvialuit Game Council
in the territory's Mackenzie Delta region, where the pipeline route would begin.
The game council, along with the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review
Board, is asking the panel to provide a specific date when its report will be
delivered. In a letter sent to panel chairman Robert Hornal last
week, both groups said the public deserves "some sense of when the panel's final
report will be completed." *
AP
via ADN. FAIRBANKS -- State lawmakers want to
understand why two energy companies ready to drill for natural gas have not
received lease-related considerations from the state.
12-02-08.
PNA
by Kristen Nelson. ExxonMobil continues aggressive Point Thomson
effort: a key to Alaska
 gas
pipeline progress.
DNR Commissioner Tom Irwin wrote Dan Seamount (NGP Photo-l), the
commission chair, on Oct. 29, asking to be heard on applications ExxonMobil made
to the commission for drilling permits. Irwin said DNR, as landowner, is an
affected party entitled to notice under Alaska statutes.
*
Deseret News by Jay Ambrose.
Apologize and do it now, Barack Obama, John McCain and all
you members of Congress who ranted about Big Oil's price-gouging and the way
future-markets speculators were abusing the wallets of consumers at the gas
pump. *
PNA,
by Eric Lidji. BP Plans $1.2 billion Alaska program for 2009.
*
FDNM, by Rena Delbridge. Lawmakers tried to figure out Monday
why the state won’t grant lease-related concessions to two companies ready and
willing to drill for Alaska natural gas. Rep. Ralph Samuels, an Anchorage
Republican, pointed representatives from both oil companies and DNR to a bigger
theme — how development of the state’s natural gas resources could affect plans
to build a large-diameter, transcontinental gas line. “If this state does
not get a gas line, we are all so screwed — and you can’t get it without Point
Thomson,” Samuels said. He said DNR is looking for leverage to force producers
into supporting TransCanada’s pipeline, which was licensed under the Alaska
Gasline Inducement Act. Some say the TransCanada proposal won’t succeed without
the assurance of gas, and they add that a producer-backed line, such as proposed
by the joint ConocoPhillips/BP Denali project, is more likely to materialize.
“You want Exxon and Chevron and BP and all the rest of the them to put that gas
into the AGIA pipeline. Is that the endgame that’s going on here?” he asked.
“When you tell folks what you plan on doing, your leverage can evaporate,”
Division of Oil and Gas Director Kevin Banks said. Judiciary
Committee chairman Rep. Jay Ramras, a Fairbanks Republican, expressed
frustration that viable projects are in limbo on DNR’s desk while constituents
clamor for better, cheaper energy. DNR Commissioner Tom Irwin was
unable to talk specifics, as an appeal is pending before him on the Thompson
unit’s termination. Instead, Banks fielded lawmakers’ inquiries.
12-1-08.
ADN by PNA. Of the things that could get in the way of an Alaska gas
pipeline happening this time around some can be managed or will be taken care of
by the markets, the federal coordinator for a gas pipeline project said
recently. But one thing that could kill the project is under the
state's control -- needed infrastructure upgrades, said Drue Pearce, who
heads the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Alaska Natural Gas
Transportation Projects. * Today is a deadline wherein in its order
U-08-58(8) the RCA imposed on Enstar a requirement to file an amendment
affirming acceptance of certain commission imposed conditions for approval of
gas supply contracts. -dh
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