Salazar ends first year vowing reforms 01/10/2010
US Interior Secretary says he'll announce reforms in how energy leases issued on federal lands, how endangered species protected
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar started on the job a year ago pledging to clean up an agency hit by scandals and assailed by critics as under the sway of the oil and gas industry. Starting his second y...

Pearce steps down as gas line coordinator 11/22/2009
President asked for resignation; legislative aide Persily says feds are checking his background for 'possible federal position'
Drue Pearce, the first and so far the only person to hold the position of federal coordinator for Alaska natural gas transportation projects, announced Nov. 16 she'll vacate the job at the request of...

Oil will hit $150 again 08/23/2009
Herrera, Simmons: The question is when, not if, but too many variables in play to predict
Hoping for higher oil prices? Be careful what you wish for. Longtime oil industry observer Roger Herrera is convinced that high oil prices, though often omitted in current economic and political deba...

Limits on energy futures to be aired 07/12/2009
Futures trading commission to hold hearings; Congress, traders concerned about speculation in crude oil futures market
Federal regulators will examine whether the government should impose limits on the number of futures contracts in oil and other energy commodities held by speculative traders, the head of the Commodit...

US Congress weighs global warming bill 04/26/2009
EPA says April 17 it will use Clean Air Act to address 6 gases; congressional hearings begin on revolutionary environmental bill
The last time Congress passed major environmental laws, acid rain was destroying lakes and forests, polluted rivers were on fire and smog was choking people in some cities. The fallout from global wa...

Tiptoeing through a minefield 03/01/2009
Obama, Harper decide it's too early to walk the talk on climate-change measures, agree they need a joint approach for treaty talks
To bad Barack Obama didn't have an hour or two of free time during his Ottawa visit Feb. 19. He could have dropped in on the first Tar Sands Film Festival, which, no matter how long it lasts, is unli...

Oil Patch Insider 02/15/2009
NANA leases 2.2M acres; BRPC sells Stinson leases; Benchmark pulls out; Rutter bringing in rig
NANA Regional Corp. has leased 2.2 million acres onshore in the northwestern Alaska Kotzebue basin to Trio Petroleum, a Bakersfield, Calif., independent oil and gas producer. Trio, which has hired Ala...

Bad economic news a drag on oil prices 01/25/2009
Rising U.S. jobless claims and a slump in new home construction pushed oil prices lower Jan. 22 on fears that crude demand in the world's largest economy will soften further. Some positive earnings re...

MMS extends scoping comments deadline for Bristol Bay lease sale 08/17/2008
The Minerals Management Service has extended its deadline for accepting comments from the public about what the federal agency should consider as it weighs the environmental impacts of future oil and...

Bush lifts OCS ban but Congress balks 07/20/2008
Executive ban lifted on offshore drilling; for practical effect Congress must also act; Democratic leaders call plan a sham
U.S. President George W. Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore oil drilling July 14 and challenged Congress to do the same, a gambit to turn the enormous public frustration about gasoline prices in...

Energy is Canada's ace if NAFTA reopened; political leaders warn U.S. against opening Pandora's Box 07/13/2008
Twenty years ago, when negotiations were getting under way for the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (known as FTA and forerunner of the subsequent North American trade pact that includes Mexico), doub...

U.S. Treasury: 'no quick fix' to high oil 06/08/2008
The U.S. Treasury Secretary said June 1 there is "no quick fix" to high oil prices on a trip designed to urge Mideast producers to allow more outside investment to help boost output. Henry Paulson to...

Saudi Arabia drops bombshell 04/27/2008
Reversal of pledges to expand daily oil production beyond 12.5 million barrels has far reaching world oil supply implications
On April 20, Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer and exporter, had put its plans to increase long-term oil production on hold. In a series of statements top Saudi off...

Chavez threatens to cut off oil sales to U.S. 02/17/2008
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Feb. 10 threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States in an "economic war" if ExxonMobil wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan asse...

Energy bill passes 12/23/2007
Delegation herds legislation into law; includes Alaska-friendly provisions
President George W. Bush signed into law Dec. 19 bipartisan legislation sponsored by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, to increase fuel economy for cars and light trucks to 35 miles per gallon, or 40 percen...

President likely to veto OPEC lawsuit bill 11/25/2007
U.S. President George W. Bush is still likely to veto legislation allowing U.S. institutions to sue the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries over its alleged actions in pushing up oil prices,...

ARCTIC ENERGY SUMMIT: High Arctic: industry's last oil and gas frontier 10/14/2007
There's one thing industry hopefully can look to when the Earth's offshore oil and gas resources south of the giant Arctic icecap are exhausted. Many geologists now believe this vast and frigid region...

Oil Patch Insider 10/14/2007
Danny is The Man to people of Newfoundland, Labrador
Whatever Big Oil may think of Danny Williams there's no doubt where he stands among the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. The pit-bull premier led his Conservative government in a re-election romp...

Arctic claims chillier than free trade tiffs 10/07/2007
More than free trade irritants, the greatest likelihood of a rift in Canada-U.S. relations over the next few years involves sovereignty over Arctic waterways. Regardless of Russian incursions, includ...

Milestone or a millstone? 10/07/2007
North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, shakes off final tariffs in 2008; Canada, unwilling to play the energy card in trade disputes, frets it 'can't get no respect'
The North American Free Trade Agreement reaches a milestone in 2008. That's when the pact will be fully implemented with the phasing out of final tariffs which were kept in place to allow an orderly a...

NPR-A in limbo 08/26/2007
Draft EIS for Northeast NPR-A out, earliest lease sale after 2008 election
The federal government's plan to open the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to oil and gas development has officially been derailed for at least two years, starting with a September 2006 court order t...

Arctic claims heat up 08/19/2007
Russian expedition poses challenge to United States, Canada and other northern nations; Canada steps up fight with plans for deepwater port, military outposts, and an increase of 900 members in the Canadian Ranger patrol
Forget about "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming" - the Cold War comedy about the grounding of a Russian submarine off a small New England town. They're here. More accurately, they're th...

House moves tax bill on oil firms 08/12/2007
Two bills impose $16B tax on oil companies, provide tax breaks, incentives for renewable energy, conservation; opponents say bills ignore need for more U.S. oil, gas, coal production
Declaring a new direction in energy policy, the U.S. House of Representatives approved US$16 billion in taxes on oil companies, while providing billions of dollars in tax breaks and incentives for ren...

Chavez vows to broaden Russian investment 07/08/2007
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called on Russian business leaders June 29 to boost their energy investment in his country, calling U.S. companies "vampires" and U.S. President George W. Bush a devil...

St. John refinery plans collide with Bush 02/11/2007
There might have been a better week for privately held Irving Oil to set the regulatory ball rolling on its plans to double refinery capacity at its Saint John, New Brunswick, complex. It announced Ja...