BG Group goes after 'big gas' in Canada 03/11/2007
BG Group has embarked on some housecleaning in Canada, transferring its attention to exploration by unloading production interests in northern British Columbia and Alberta for C$526 million. Three ye...

Umiat appraisal wells in the works 03/11/2007
New independent formed by Renaissance, Rutter and Wilbanks, Arctic Falcon to appraise Alaska oil field, will drill in 2007-08
Renaissance Alaska, Rutter and Wilbanks and Arctic Falcon have formed a limited liability company to evaluate and, if all goes well, develop the Umiat oil field on the northern edge of the Brooks R...

Oil Patch Insider 03/11/2007
Nabors builds exploration rig for Chevron; Brooks Range group acquires Bachner acreage; Hints of success from Talisman/FEX's NPR-A drilling
Nabors Alaska Drilling is building a lightweight, high-tech AC drilling rig at the request of Chevron, which plans a multi-year drilling program on the North Slope starting next winter. Nabors Rig 10...

FERC legal team takes sides 03/11/2007
Shoots holes in TAPS owners' claims as tariff litigation moves toward review
A legal team at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued an opinion that owners of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline fighting in a Washington, D.C., court to justify the tariffs they would lik...

Legislature gets AGIA 03/11/2007
First hearing in House OandG March 13; Alaska legislators support concept
The Alaska Legislature is now in possession of Gov. Sarah Palin's Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, with the first hearings scheduled on the bill in the House Special Committee on Oil and Gas March 13. ...

Canadian oil patch deals surge in '06 03/04/2007
Oil and gas deal-making tallied C$56.9 billion in Canada last year, an increase of 32 percent from 2005, and accounting for one-quarter of all Canadian mergers and acquisitions, said investment banker...

Oil Patch Insider 03/04/2007
Anadarko orders new rig for Foothills gas drilling; Canada on guard against LNG tankers; Popp takes Poe's spot at AEDC
Partners Anadarko Petroleum, BG Group and Petro-Canada have ordered a new rig and remote camp from Nabors Alaska Drilling for a multi-year drilling program on shared acreage in the gas-prone Brooks Ra...

Oil Patch Insider 02/25/2007
PN sources say Eni buying Anadarko out of Nikaitchuq; Milan approved development after successful production test; Canada told to forget Arctic claims
Petroleum News sources said Feb. 22 that Eni has purchased Anadarko Petroleum's 70 percent interest in the Nikaitchuq prospect, making Eni 100 percent owner in the Alaska Beaufort Sea unit. State of...

One shelved, seven still standing 02/18/2007
Unable to solve supply problems, Anadarko mothballs Nova Scotia LNG plans; only Irving-Repsol project has certain supplies, leaving seven Canadian projects in various stages of development; Kitimat only fully permitted terminal for the West Coast
Once on the leading edge of Canada's ambitions to enter the liquefied natural gas age, the Bear Head project in Nova Scotia has been mothballed. After an apparent losing struggle to arrange LNG suppli...

Anadarko continues to pare down assets 02/04/2007
Company raises $8 billion from property divestitures, with more sales to come, more debt to repay from major acquisitions
Anadarko Petroleum is orchestrating a property sales spree that so far has netted after-tax $8 billion to pay down a hefty $24.3 billion debt the big Houston-based exploration and production independe...

KUPARUK ANNIVERSARY: A remarkable workforce 01/21/2007
Dubuisson: workforce 'unique'; Lineberger: they 'just find ways to get things done'
Both Paul Dubuisson, manager of North Slope operations for ConocoPhillips Alaska, and Van Lineberger, ConocoPhillips' Greater Kuparuk operations manager, use the word remarkable when talking about Kup...

KUPARUK ANNIVERSARY: At 25, Kuparuk at midpoint 01/21/2007
Field began producing in December 1981, has conventional resources, vast amounts of viscous oil yet to develop
The Kuparuk River field has been in production for more than 25 years, since Dec. 13, 1981. It has a lot more anniversaries to go. "We don't feel we're halfway through the field's life yet, even tho...

MEET ALASKA 2007: Alaska roll call lookin' good 01/21/2007
Today 31 oil and gas companies have significant investments in Alaska; in 1996 that number was down to 7
Ten years ago Petroleum News published a "roll call" of oil and gas companies doing business in Alaska. In the five preceding years the number had dropped by more than one-half, from 19 active compani...

Utah company in Canada refinery mix 01/14/2007
A Utah-based resource conglomerate has emerged as yet another candidate to establish Atlantic Canada as a new North American refining center. Headwaters has confirmed it is in preliminary discussions...

Petro-Canada, FEX link up to explore NPR-A 01/07/2007
Canadian companies form exploration partnership on jointly held leases in National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska
It looks like Alaska will have one less operator than expected next winter. Two Calgary-based companies, Petro-Canada and Talisman Energy's Alaska subsidiary FEX, have teamed up to explore their joint...

Canada taking cautious route 01/07/2007
Capital spending forecast to drop 6.6 percent in 2007 because of upstream inflation, natural gas uncertainties, rest of world
On the capital spending teeter-totter, the rest of the world is headed up in 2007 while Canada takes a dive. Predictions made by Citigroup Research, a division of Citigroup Global Markets, said globa...

RCA rejects TAPS rate hike 01/07/2007
Alaska oil pipeline owners seek to recoup rising costs in higher tariff
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska rejected Dec. 28 revisions to tariffs filed by owners of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline that would more than double the carrier's 2007 transportation rates for North...

Mac explorers weary 01/07/2007
Independent group losing interest; Devon says may be 'simpler' to leave basin
Northwest Territories Industry Minister Brendan Bell has a direct warning for regulators weighing the Mackenzie Gas Project - if the current window to start developing Canada's Arctic natural gas star...

Statoil purchases Norsk Hydro OandG 12/24/2006
$30B stock deal to transform Norway's Statoil into largest offshore operator, major deepwater player in U.S Gulf of Mexico
Statoil has agreed to purchase the oil and gas assets of fellow Norwegian company Norsk Hydro in a US$30 billion stock deal that would elevate Statoil to the world's largest offshore operator, and tra...

What role for ANGDA under Palin? 12/24/2006
New governor asks agency to take another look at LNG project in voter initiative, but not pushing that as number one for state
Why hasn't the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority pursued an LNG project out of Valdez? Apparently it was a question Gov. Sarah Palin asked ANGDA CEO Harold Heinze, board Vice Chairman Scott He...

Judges query lawyers in FERC case regarding Alaska gas line regs 12/24/2006
Oral arguments in an appeal of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rules guiding development of the Alaska gas pipeline took twice as long in a federal appeals court Dec. 5 as the 30 minutes judges s...

Oooguruk expansion application complete 12/17/2006
Pioneer Natural Resources picked up needed leases to fill in unit, got royalty reduction, built gravel island; pipelines next
Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska has completed an application to expand its North Slope Oooguruk unit, which now includes 12 State of Alaska oil and gas leases, with an additional seven state leases....

Anadarko, Devon score oil at Mission Deep 12/17/2006
Deepwater partners Anadarko Petroleum and Devon Energy said they made an oil discovery on their Mission Deep prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, adding that the exploration well encountered more than 250...

LNG threatens costly gas 12/17/2006
EIA expects liquefied natural gas imports to Lower 48 will climb to 4.5 tcf by 2030
Not only might imports of liquefied natural gas to North America offset the anticipated loss of Canadian supplies over the next decade, they could also spell trouble for the more expensive plays that...

PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: A prospect by any other name ... 12/10/2006
Jacobs Ladder moniker grew out of the hopeful imaginings of geologist Jim Tautfest, who was enamored with the botanical wonders of Alaska's North Slope
Jim Tautfest, senior geologist at Anadarko Petroleum Group, went looking for oil and gas prospects on the North Slope in the late 1990s and by 2000, had assembled a portfolio of hopefuls along the nor...