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BP earns $1.89B in ’09 (Full story)
BP Exploration (Alaska)’s 2009 balance sheet provides a pretty good example of how the progressive nature of Alaska production taxes impacts profits for a major oil company.
BP earned $1.89 billion in Alaska in 2009, down around 3 percent from the $1.95 billion the company earned in 2008. Those some....
Critics eye Point Thomson
Environmental groups are raising questions about ExxonMobil’s Point Thomson project on Alaska’s North Slope, arguing among other things that proposed drilling pads could be vulnerable to potential erosion along the Beaufort Sea coast.
The groups also are concerned the development crowds the western....
Facing tough issues (Full story)
Besieged on one side by development proponents and on the other by the environmental lobby, it seems that nowadays the U.S. Department of the Interior has difficulty keeping anyone happy when it comes to the thorny questions of whether or how to open federal onshore and offshore lands for oil and ga....
Greening of Oil - Latest from Mac Ackers (Full story)
AND THE OSCAR DOESN’T GO TO ... We’re talking Hollywood. Anything goes, right?
But this one backfired. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences didn’t play ball by delivering the goods on Oscar night.
In what might have taken the prize for Manipulation, a coalition of 50-odd nongovernmental,....
Untangling Mac line red tape; NEB calls for recommendation changes (Full story)
Proponents of the Mackenzie Gas Project have waited the best part of a decade for a regulatory agency to streamline processing of their application.
But Canada’s National Energy Board has done what the partners, the wider industry and some government leaders have repeatedly urged.
The federal regula....
Chevron relinquishes 41 White Hills O&G leases
Chevron is narrowing its focus at its White Hills prospect on the North Slope.
According to state land records, the state terminated 41 leases in White Hills on Feb. 1 because Chevron, through its subsidiary Union Oil Company of California, decided to stop paying rental fees on the acreage. The leas....
Ramping up the Alberta oil sands
The push to exploit Alberta’s oil sands is in full swing, with two startup companies rolling out project plans.
Athabasca Oil Sands Corp., which recently sold 60 percent stakes in two of its leases to PetroChina, and Grizzly Oil Sands have their sights set on commercial production by 2015.
AOSC has....
BP sets new record for coiled tubing
On Feb. 25, after 19 days of drilling, a coiled tubing sidetrack from the MPL-36 well in the BP-operated Milne Point field on Alaska’s North Slope reached a measured depth of 22,462 feet. BP thinks this is a world record for a coiled tubing well, Sean McLaughlin, BP coiled tubing drilling engineer,....
Who benefits, pays with subsidization?
Mark Foster of MAFA will be presenting a talk on “The economics of subsidization: health care reform and Alaska energy markets,” at the Anchorage Chapter of the International Association of Energy Economics on March 17 at noon at the BP Energy Center. Foster will compare the economics of expanded he....
Coalbed methane goes flat in Alberta
Coalbed methane, once tagged as a vital new source of gas in Canada, has gone quiet, drowned out by the clatter surrounding shale gas.
And Calgary-based consulting firm Ziff Energy Group believes coalbed methane volumes will remain flat as activity is diverted to British Columbia’s Montney and Horn....
Lowering barriers to energy growth
A promise to reduce red tape facing Canada’s major energy projects — one that spans the four years since the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper was elected — now seems destined for action.
The federal budget released March 4 included a commitment to shift responsibility for environmental re....
North Fork rights-of-way applications in
In November the Regulatory Commission of Alaska approved a new supply of gas for Enstar Natural Gas Co. from Anchor Point Energy’s North Fork gas field in the southern Kenai Peninsula. And state right-of-way applications have now appeared for the two pipelines needed to deliver gas from the field.
T....
Persily confirmed as federal coordinator
The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Larry Persily March 10 as Alaska natural gas transportation project federal coordinator.
U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, recommended Persily to the Obama administration for the post.
The senator said in a statement after the March 10 confirmation vote: “Larry....
February worldwide rig count up
Baker Hughes Inc. said March 5 that the worldwide rig count for February was 2,982 (2,632 onshore and 350 offshore), up 209 from 2,773 in January and up 229 from 2,753 in February 2009.
The U.S. rig count for February was 1,350, up 83 from 1,267 in January and up 30 from 1,320 in February 2009. The....
Salazar announces Alaska climate center
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced March 4 that the Department of the Interior has selected the University of Alaska to host an Alaska regional climate science center. The University of Alaska center is the first of eight regional centers that Interior is setting up across the United St....
Denali moves filing date back 2nd time
Denali — which delayed the date of its submittal of a FERC application for an Alaska gas pipeline project by more than a year last summer — has now moved that date back again.
The company said in its report to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on January activities that the company is now ta....
TG World drops interest in Sak River
The Canadian independent TG World Energy Corp. is giving up its stake in a North Slope exploration well after judging initial production test results unsatisfactory.
A production test of the Kuparuk C-1 sandstone at the Sak River No. 1-A exploration well on March 5 and 6 “recovered water and a mino.... |
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Our Arctic Neighbors: Norwegian industry seeks bait for fishermen
Offshore areas of the Norwegian Arctic will only be opened up to oil and gas activities if coastal residents can be persuaded there are benefits for them, the chairman of a local oil company told the Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromso Jan. 26. Johann Petter Barlindhaug of North Energy said workin....
Our Arctic Neighbors: Norway offers more offshore Arctic blocks
The Norwegian government has expanded the areas available for oil and gas exploration activities in the Barents Sea and Norwegian Sea in its announcement of the Awards in Predefined Areas 2010, the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy said in a release Feb. 19. An additional 20 blocks are now available....
Our Arctic Neighbors: Seismic surveys disturb fish, Norwegians find
Seismic surveys do have an effect on fish, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has concluded after commissioning the Institute of Marine Research to conduct one of the largest-ever research projects on this issue. The research took place in summer 2009 off the district of Vesteralen in northwestern....
Talisman looking to sell Alaska assets
Talisman Energy appears to be looking to leave Alaska.
The Calgary-based independent, which operates in Alaska through its subsidiary FEX, wants to sell its interest in leases in northern Alaska, according to a financial filing posted by Canadian securities regulators March 8. In the filing, Talisma....
Parnell requests corps reconsideration
Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell has requested that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reconsider its Feb. 5 denial of a permit request by ConocoPhillips Alaska for development of CD-5, the company’s oil prospect which lies west of the Alpine field in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
The governor said....
US, Canada battle over Beaufort boundary
In the conflict between the United States and Canada over who owns a pie-shaped wedge of the Beaufort Sea off the Alaska-Yukon coast, it appears that what lies to the north of the wedge is the biggest wild card of all.
The dispute over the New Jersey-sized slice of ocean directly northeast of Alask....
British Columbia cuts resource budgets
In what some critics see as biting the hand that feeds British Columbia revenues, the provincial government plans to divert spending in its key resource departments — energy, mines and forestry — by C$320 million over the next three years to support health care and education programs.
It’s a swift r....
Rural Energy Conference set for April
The 2010 Rural Energy Conference will be held April 27-29 at the Westmark Conference Center in Fairbanks, conference organizers — the Alaska Energy Authority and the Alaska Center for Energy and Power at the University of Alaska Fairbanks — said March 9.
This year’s conference theme is “New Energy....
Some changes made to open season plan
In response to comments on its open season plan, TransCanada and ExxonMobil, sponsors of the Alaska Pipeline Project, the APP parties, have addressed “certain discrete procedural issues raised by ConocoPhillips and BP,” and also responded to a request by the State of Alaska for clarification of stan....
BP’s heavy oil test facility ready
BP has nearly completed the construction of a $100 million facility on the Milne Point S-Pad on Alaska’s North Slope to test ways of producing heavy oil from the Ugnu formation a few thousand feet below the pad. The tests should start in May, company spokesman Steve Rinehart told Petroleum News Marc....
Bill separates oil, gas in Alaska tax
The Alaska Senate’s Finance Committee started hearings March 9 on Senate Bill 305, a bill which would separate oil from gas for purposes of calculating the state’s oil and gas production tax.
The bill was one of a pair introduced in the Senate, and Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, the committee’s co-cha....
DEC proposes new village utility permit
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation is proposing to issue a new air quality control permit to the North Slope Borough for the power utility in the village of Nuiqsut.
The “minor permit” would cover not only four diesel-fired generators, but also two generators fired with natural gas.....
Kenai Hydro suspends activity on project
Progress on a proposed Alaska hydroelectric project near Moose Pass north of Seward appears to be slowing down, at least for now.
The project developer, Kenai Hydro LLC, told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in a Feb. 8 filing the company is “suspending major activities to consider how best....
Oil Patch Bits: Stoel Rives welcomes Tucker to Anchorage office
Stoel Rives LLP said March 3 that it was pleased to announce that S. Lane Tucker has joined as a partner in the firm’s Anchorage office. Tucker will focus her practice on government contracting and construction law matters, including Contract Disputes Act, False Claims Act and bid protest litigation....
Oil Patch Bits: Crowley doubles warehouse space in Jacksonville
Crowley Maritime Corp. said March 4 that it has moved to a new 70,000-square-foot warehouse at JAXPORT’s Dames Point location, minutes from the company’s headquarters. With this move, the company has doubled its north Florida warehouse space. This new location, at 3700 Port Jacksonville Parkway, has....
Oil Patch Bits: ExxonMobil offers GPS gas station locator download
ExxonMobil said March 8 that it has introduced a new feature that will allow customers to download ExxonMobil service station locations to their GPS devices. This feature is downloadable from the ExxonMobil station locator Web site and is compatible with the leading consumer GPS devices, including G.... |