Gas could be answer in warming fight 01/03/2010
Utilities looking at natural gas because it emits half as much carbon as coal when burned to generate same amount of electricity
An unlikely source of energy has emerged to meet international demands that the United States do more to fight global warming: It's cleaner than coal, cheaper than oil and a 90-year supply is under ou...

Corps begins work on Point Thomson EIS 12/13/2009
ExxonMobil is moving ahead with development permitting for its Point Thomson project. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers published a notice Dec. 4 of intention to prepare a draft environmental impact s...

Logistics key to Point Thomson project 12/06/2009
Last year's ice road only available to move materials for four weeks; barges used in summer; rolligons moved significant amounts
ExxonMobil has been fighting a running battle with the State of Alaska over development of its North Slope Point Thomson field - but it has also been waging a logistics battle to get equipment and sup...

Iraqi Cabinet OKs Exxon-Shell deal 11/15/2009
Iraq's government approved a major oil deal with a consortium grouping U.S. and European oil giants Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC to develop a prized oil field in the country's south, th...

Arctic Directory: MMS recognizes Exxon for safety excellence 09/20/2009
The U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service announced March 25 that Exxon Mobil Corp. is one of the winners of the 2008 District Safety Award for Excellence for the Gulf of Mexic...

Big round of Exxon Valdez payments coming 08/30/2009
Lawyers for thousands of fishermen, other plaintiffs to begin dividing $470M in interest Exxon paid on punitive damages award
Since December, lawyers for plaintiffs in the epic Exxon Valdez oil spill case have been working to distribute $383 million in punitive damages to thousands of commercial fishermen and other claimants...

Two state officials move to new positions 08/30/2009
Sen. Gene Therriault says he'll become energy adviser to Gov. Parnell, while Division of Oil and Gas loses Nan Thompson to Enstar
Two public officials familiar to many in Alaska energy circles are taking new jobs. State Sen. Gene Therriault, a Republican from the North Pole community near Fairbanks, announced Aug. 21 he's accept...

FERC: Infrastructure a challenge for Alaska gas pipeline project 08/30/2009
FERC tells Congress greater progress needed in improving or repairing highways, bridges, ports, airstrips prior to construction
Both Denali – The Alaska Gas Pipeline and TransCanada Alaska have pre-filed and both intend to hold open seasons in 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said in its eighth report to Congress...

Denali moves FERC application date back 08/16/2009
Company says '09 field work not needed for 2010 open season; TransCanada working on corridor review, limited geophysical
Denali is delaying by more than a year its submittal of a FERC application. Denali - The Alaska Gas Pipeline LLC, said in an early August monthly status report to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commis...

Oil industry cranks up lobbying effort 07/19/2009
Oil, gas spending in D.C. up more in past 2 years than other industries; $129M spent in '08; $44.5 million in 1st quarter of '09
Oil and gas companies have accelerated their spending on lobbying faster than any other industry, training their gusher of profits on Washington to fight new taxes on drilling and slow efforts to move...

Exxon to pay spill penalty interest 07/05/2009
Exxon Mobil Corp. said June 29 it won't appeal nearly $500 million in interest that a court recently ordered it to pay to Alaska fishermen, business owners and others harmed by the 1989 Exxon Valdez o...

Refiners move into alternative fuels 06/28/2009
Oil companies shop for discounted ethanol plants forced into bankruptcy by economy, frozen credit, wildly swinging corn prices; of some 200 U.S. plants, about two dozen in bankruptcy
When Sunoco closed in mid-June on the acquisition of a bankrupt ethanol plant in Fulton, N.Y., for pennies on the dollar, it became just the latest oil refiner to step into the alternative fuels marke...

Appeals court orders Exxon to pay interest 06/21/2009
Exxon Mobil Corp. was ordered June 15 to pay about $500 million in interest on punitive damages for the Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, nearly doubling the payout to Alaska Natives, fishermen, busi...

Last single-hulled tanker leaves Alaska; Exxon's S/R Long Beach faces mandatory retirement 06/21/2009
Has the last single-hulled tanker exited the Alaska oil trade? The S/R Long Beach, which carried North Slope crude oil for Exxon Mobil, is "not currently physically located along the West Coast," Ray...

New finds in NPR-A 05/10/2009
Conoco reports Mooses Tooth oil; 5 other companies finish winter drilling
ConocoPhillips on May 4 announced test results from two wells drilled in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in recent winters: Pioneer No. 1 and the Rendezvous No. 2. "Test production rates for the...

RCA clears ways for discontinuing berths 04/26/2009
Opening docket to intervening parties and public hearing; without opposition, construction work on tanker berths could start in May
State regulators have cleared the way for the owners of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline to discontinue two Valdez Marine Terminal berths for loading crude oil onto tankers. The five companies with owner...

Straddling the 49th Parallel; Exxon tops Fortune 500 list 04/26/2009
Here's one for the oddity file: an American fighting for Canada in Washington. That's roughly where Tom Huffaker finds himself these days. After serving as United States consul general for Alberta, Sa...

AOGCC dismisses unitization petition 04/12/2009
Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission denies ExxonMobil unitization petition, citing differences in statutory authority
The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has dismissed - without prejudice - a petition Exxon Mobil Corp. filed in 2007 for compulsory unitization of the Point Thomson sand unit under the commis...

Tanker barred from loading oil in Valdez 04/05/2009
The Coast Guard says it prohibited a tanker in Valdez from loading oil after cracks were found in the 24-year-old vessel. The S/R Baytown belongs to a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corp., Houston-based Se...

Oil Patch Bits: MMS recognizes Exxon for safety excellence 04/05/2009
The U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service announced March 25 that Exxon Mobil Corp. is one of the winners of the 2008 District Safety Award for Excellence for the Gulf of Mexic...

More oil spill payments expected 02/22/2009
Plaintiffs in the Exxon Valdez oil spill case should be seeing additional money soon. A federal judge has approved a second round of punitive damages payments to commercial fishermen and Native subsi...

SEC rules hurt with dropping oil prices 01/25/2009
The sharp drop in crude prices is forcing oil companies to exclude some untapped oil and natural gas reserves from their books because they're no longer economically viable, potentially affecting comp...

Exxon can fight state on permits 01/25/2009
A judge has turned back a state effort to kill an Exxon Mobil Corp. lawsuit seeking a drilling permit for the disputed Point Thomson oil and gas field. The ruling from Anchorage Superior Court Judge P...

Recent Thomson legal decisions a toss-up 01/25/2009
One Superior Court judge agrees DNR has denied permits; another refuses to allow Exxon's request for a partial trial de novo
Alaska Superior Court Judge Sharon Gleason has denied a request from Exxon Mobil Corp. for a partial trial de novo for discovery on specific topics in the appeal of the state's 2008 termination of the...

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...