New Nicolai Creek gas well goes on line 01/10/2010
Aurora Gas has brought no. 11 well into operation and company applies for new PA and unit expansion at west Cook Inlet gas field
Independent gas producer Aurora Gas has brought on line a new well, the Nicolai Creek No. 11, in its Nicolai Creek gas field, at the northern end of Trading Bay, on the western coast of Alaska's Cook...

Salazar launches 'major reforms' for onshore leasing program 01/10/2010
Secretary of the Interior says reforms include new guidance to field managers, new reviews
Citing pushback from the public on the level of onshore oil and gas leasing under the Bush administration, President Obama's Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, said in a Jan. 6 press conference t...

ANGDA resolves EIS project description 12/27/2009
Authority's board approves moving ahead with Beluga to Fairbanks gas line permitting work, exclusive agreement on propane project
The Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Land Management appear to have come to an agreement on a project description of ANGDA's Beluga-to-Fairb...

ANGDA, agencies, at odds on EIS process 12/06/2009
Corps of Engineers has issues with description of Beluga-to-Fairbanks gas line; BLM doesn't think ANGDA has authority to go north
Federal agencies are butting heads with the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority over its project description for the proposed Beluga-to-Fairbanks or B2F gas line and over its authority to permit...

NPR-A lease sale set for August; both northeast, northwest tracts 11/29/2009
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced Nov. 24 that the Bureau of Land Management will hold a National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska oil and gas lease sale on Aug. 11, 2010. The sale will include tr...

BLM increases oil and gas processing fee 11/15/2009
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management said Nov. 6 that on Nov. 2 it began charging a $6,500 processing fee for new oil and gas applications for permits to drill. BLM said the fee increase from $4,000 wa...

Ready at Umiat 09/13/2009
Renaissance says field development will depend on sustained oil prices
The Umiat oil field, adjacent to the Colville River on the eastern side of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, has remained a tantalizing puzzle since the U.S. Navy discovered oil there in 1946 and...

Conoco bags Bear Tooth 09/06/2009
Firm keeps some expiring NPR-A leases; one new unit, one expansion
Faced with a looming expiration date on dozens of federal leases, ConocoPhillips worked out a deal with the Bureau of Land Management to form a new exploration unit called Bear Tooth and expand an exi...

Senate confirms Abbey as BLM director 08/23/2009
A former state director of the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada, who worked to cool rhetoric and build partnerships for managing public lands, was confirmed Aug. 7 as national director of the agenc...

Seventy-nine NPR-A Conoco leases set to expire Aug. 31 08/23/2009
Seventy-nine leases operated by ConocoPhillips in the northeast sale area of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska are set to expire on Aug. 31. Neither the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, nor ConocoP...

Mining News: 260,000 abandoned mines still mar West 07/26/2009
GAO: States assess functional royalties on hardrock mining; Murkowski urges caution as U.S. Senate debates modernizing mining law
Though Alaska has more than 7,300 abandoned hardrock mine sites, most of which are located on federal lands, the state's problems are relatively small potatoes compared with the estimated 260,000 aban...

BLM to convey almost half-million acres 06/28/2009
Transferring more than 150 million acres from federal to state and private ownership taking longer than originally thought
The federal Bureau of Land Management has filed public notice to convey more than 554,000 acres to a handful of Alaska village and regional Native corporations. Included are 233,000 acres near Minto,...

Hamilton, Abbey nominated for DOI posts 06/14/2009
Nominees to fill two top jobs at the Department of the Interior were announced June 9: Sam D. Hamilton as director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Bob Abbey as director of the Bureau of L...

Remediation money for Drew Point well 05/10/2009
Dry hole drilled by federal government in 1978 on Beaufort Sea coast; bottom plug set, but diesel left in top 2,000 feet of hole
The Alaska office of the Bureau of Land Management will receive $37.4 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for 30 projects in the state, and will use a portion of those fun...

North Slope closed for off-road travel 05/03/2009
All North Slope lands, state and federal, are now closed for winter off-road travel. The latest closing was for National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska lands managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management....

Feds offer geothermal training in June 04/12/2009
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service are offering a training session in Anchorage on environmentally sound development of geothermal energy. BLM said this is one of seven sessio...

BLM seeks advisory council nominees 04/12/2009
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is looking for nominees for five positions on its Alaska advisory council: commercial recreation; dispersed recreation; elected official; Alaska Natives; and public-...

Anadarko and FEX get NPR-A partners 04/05/2009
Anadarko Petroleum and FEX have both brought on old friends on federal acreage the companies separately picked up in a September 2008 lease sale in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, according to...

BLM starts work on Atigaru Point well 03/22/2009
Cleanup efforts begin on third in program to prevent environmental damage at 'legacy wells'; funding uncertain for fourth well
The federal government is tackling another decades-old well site that poses a threat to the environment because of eroding coastlines and thawing permafrost on the North Slope. The Bureau of Land Mana...

BLM names gas pipeline project manager 03/22/2009
The Bureau of Land Management in Alaska said March 13 that Ron Dunton has been appointed gas pipeline project manager. Dunton, a former BLM land and resources manager from New Mexico, will oversee th...

Elton named to Alaska slot at Interior 03/08/2009
An Alaskan is going to Washington, D.C., in a key role - for the state - in the administration of President Barak Obama. Sen. Kim Elton, D-Juneau, has been named director of Alaska affairs for the De...

Arctic Directory: ENSR to prepare EIS on Wyoming wind project 01/25/2009
ENSR has been selected by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to prepare the environmental impact statement for a major new wind energy project proposed by the Power Company of Wyoming. ENSR, a leading...

Companies racking up drilling permits 01/25/2009
Anadarko gets another for Wolf Creek, Chevron gets one more at White Hills, ConocoPhillips applies for first permit at Mooses Tooth
State and federal officials recently issued additional drilling permits to Anadarko, Chevron and ConocoPhillips for North Slope exploration work planned for this winter. ConocoPhillips is starting to...

McGuire proposes geothermal tax credit 01/11/2009
Prefiled bill would credit 35 cents per kilowatt hour for 4 years of geothermal generation of at least 400 kilowatts of electricity
Is Alaska ready for geothermal-generated electricity? Alaska Sen. Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage, thinks so and has prefiled legislation proposing a production tax credit for geothermal energy systems tha...

Petro-Hunt pulls out 01/11/2009
Dallas-based company drops its bids from the September NPR-A lease sale
Just three months after successfully bidding on 72 lease tracts in the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's September 2008 National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska lease sale, Dallas-based Petro-Hunt LLC has ele...