Oil Patch Bits: Unique Machine receives accreditations 12/20/2009
Unique Machine LLC said Dec. 11 that the American Petroleum Institute, after completing a full review of Unique Machine's quality programs, has granted API Monogram License No. 5CT-1163 and API Monogr...

Exxon seeks new life 12/20/2009
Bets heavily on unconventional gas as fuel of choice by 2030 in takeover of XTO
The tipoff was there for anyone caring to pay attention when ExxonMobil declared on Dec. 8 that natural gas would be the fuel of choice in the United States by 2030, shunting aside coal and oil. Less...

Wins and losses for sands sector 11/01/2009
Industry gets boost from study estimating employment, economic spinoffs; runs afoul of chemical producers, who demand single standard
The Alberta oil sands, as is so often the case, are being pulled in opposite directions, quietly ramping up production, while unease builds as the sector awaits greenhouse gas regulations from the Oba...

Pioneer gets multiple Oooguruk approvals 08/23/2009
Participating areas, multiphase meters approved; development drilling continues; WAG in Nuiqsut, waterflood in Kuparuk planned
Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska received multiple regulatory approvals for its Oooguruk field off Alaska's North Slope north of Kuparuk in late July. The field, which began producing last summer, rep...

Court says only Alaska on hold in proceeding against OCS sales 08/02/2009
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has responded to a May 11 request by the U.S. Department of the Interior for clarification of the ramifications of an April 17 court ord...

State intervenes in case 07/26/2009
AG: Appeal against Chukchi Sea lease sale could have major impact in Alaska
A judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska has allowed the State of Alaska to intervene in an appeal by the Native village of Point Hope, the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope a...

BP in Alaska: Moving the oil – pipeline challenges 07/12/2009
Designing a pipeline that would transport Prudhoe Bay oil from Alaska's northern coast to its ice-free port of Valdez on Alaska's southern coast was an unprecedented engineering challenge. Three basic...

Canada to match US climate-change rules 07/05/2009
Canada will play ball with the United States on climate-change regulations to avoid crippling tariffs on its oil exports, but will continue to press its case in Washington for other clean-energy alter...

Private sector lead sought for propane 06/21/2009
ANGDA hosts Alaska Opportunities Conference; state corporation looking for companies to process, transport, buy propane
The Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority has reached a tentative agreement with a major North Slope producer for the sale of propane and is seeking private parties to help distribute the fuel acro...

Biofuels - rethinking, reshaping, restarting; 5% ethanol considered 05/31/2009
Canada to copy US approach, shrugging off questions about indirect GHG emissions from grain-based fuels, shake-out in US sector; renewable fuels standard yet to be established
The Canadian government is falling into line with the United States as it plans a sharp hike in the use of grain-based ethanol in transportation fuels, ignoring the growing concerns over the greenhous...

DOI seeks clarity on court OCS ruling 05/17/2009
Since April 17, when the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld an appeal by the Native Village of Point Hope and several environmental organizations against the U.S. Miner...

Oil Patch Insider 05/17/2009
Alberta cleans up royalty house; Alyeska wins operator award; JPO moving; Foothills road studies this summer
Whatever Alberta's oil and gas producers think of the province's new royalty scheme - and the displeasure is close to universal - Alberta Auditor-General Fred Dunn isn't about to give them a break. Fo...

Tesoro uses more crude oils at Nikiski 05/03/2009
Refinery formerly used just Cook Inlet, North Slope crude oil; 14 new crude oils from around the world run at facility last year
Tesoro's Nikiski refinery was built to process Cook Inlet crude oil and over the years as Cook Inlet production declined the refinery substituted Alaska North Slope crude oil and at one time was runni...

Canada faces alignment 04/26/2009
Panel calls for national policy to make consumers, industry pay for emissions
What little hope the Canadian petroleum industry and producing provinces may have held that a move toward carbon capture and storage technology would appease the formidable U.S. push to tough climate-...

API reports US drilling below 2004 levels 04/19/2009
The American Petroleum Institute's first-quarter report on well completions found an estimated 11,071 oil, natural gas and dry holes were completed in the United States in the first quarter, down 22 p...

Alaska producers reject new SEC rule 01/18/2009
Some of the world's largest oil companies, including Alaska Big Three producers ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and BP, are unlikely to participate in a new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule tha...

High court rejects TAPS case 01/18/2009
Legal watchdog: Congress overstepped authority with 2005 legislation that bars Exxon Mobil from collecting millions
The U.S. Supreme Court declined Jan. 11 to consider a legal challenge from Exxon Mobil Corp. to a 2005 congressional provision on Alaska oil shipments that the company said cost it $125 million in ref...

SEC approves new rules for oil reserves 01/11/2009
The Securities and Exchange Commission on Dec. 29 approved updated rules for energy companies that will require them to provide more detailed information to investors when reporting oil and gas reserv...

Winning the numbers game 01/11/2009
Another year before new SEC rule allowing 12-month average price takes effect
Within a year Canadian energy producers - notably those in the oil sands - should emerge victorious from their prolonged battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission over U.S. reserves rules. Ef...

AOGCC initial meter approval required 11/23/2008
The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission said Nov. 13 that it has uncovered a gap in its regulations for custody transfer metering equipment. These meters are used to measure hydrocarbon volumes...

40 Years at Prudhoe Bay: Pipeline tops for moving oil to market 11/16/2008
Companies organize unprecedented engineering feat to overcome technical challenges of transporting Prudhoe Bay crude to tidewater
Even while Put River No. 1 was being drilled, the three companies most concerned with Prudhoe Bay at that time - British Petroleum, Atlantic Richfield and Humble (predecessor to ExxonMobil) - initiate...

U.S. Gulf production still languishing 10/26/2008
Nearly two months after operators began evacuating offshore platforms and drilling rigs ahead of back-to-back hurricanes Gustav and Ike more than 30 percent of oil and gas production remained shut-in...

Cash is king 10/19/2008
It's too early to know final impact of economic crisis on oil, gas industry
The financial crisis that is churning its way around the world economy seems likely to cause an international recession at best and could cause a global economic meltdown at worst. But how might this...

Impact of bruin listing still in limbo 09/28/2008
Legal, regulatory tangle obscures potential effect of "threatened" designation for polar bears on Alaska's resource industries
Four months after U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne listed the polar bear as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act, the issue has become a legal and regulatory tangle, leaving the impact...

Refineries under scrutiny for emissions 09/14/2008
An unidentified Canadian oil refinery was dramatically wide of the mark in estimating the volume of dangerous air pollutants released by the facility, according to a study by the government-financed A...