Oil Patch Insider: TransCanada on Arctic gas; RDC conference Nov. 18-19; Buffett cash to build Alaska gas line? 11/15/2009
TransCanada, with a financial stake in the Mackenzie Gas Project and the prospect of operating the main gas pipeline to southern markets, but no ownership position, is ideally situated to tell it stra...

Legislators get biannual report on AGIA 11/08/2009
As required under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, legislators have received the second biannual report on the Alaska Pipeline Project licensed under the act. Alaska Commissioner of Revenue Pat Gal...

Gas prices, availability, now and then 09/27/2009
Alaska Oil and Gas Congress hears pessimistic, optimistic views on future for Arctic gas; told it can't be highest-priced commodity
Natural gas prices are low and supply is plentiful. What does that mean for a proposed Alaska gas pipeline which could begin shipping gas in 2018? The 5th Annual Alaska Oil and Gas Congress, held in An...

Panel hikes US gas estimate 39% to 1,836 tcf; 1/3 from shale gas 06/28/2009
The United States has considerably more natural gas than previously thought, totaling 1,836 trillion cubic feet, says a new assessment from the Colorado-based Potential Gas Committee. "This is the hig...

Petro-Canada major Alaska leaseholder 03/29/2009
There is an Alaska impact from the Suncor Energy merger with Petro-Canada announced March 23. While not an operator in the state, Petro-Canada is a major oil and gas leaseholder on both state and fed...

Friend or future foe? 03/29/2009
Will L48 shale gas development help or hinder the sale of Arctic natural gas?
Nowadays ne'er a presentation goes by on the future of the U.S. natural gas market, without a graph depicting ever expanding production from the gas shales that form continuous gas resources under vas...

AGIA on the table again? 03/22/2009
House Republicans want to revisit license decision; Palin wants to stay course
Republican legislators in the Alaska House are concerned about current gas supply and price issues as they affect gas pipeline economics and want to be sure the TransCanada Alaska pipeline proposal th...

DNR concludes Point Thomson hearing 02/22/2009
ExxonMobil moving ahead with ice roads; Nabors says rig will be ready to move out by mid-March; five to seven days to location
The Department of Natural Resources finished up its hearing on appeals of the termination of 31 Point Thomson oil and gas leases Feb. 12 and Point Thomson operator ExxonMobil said the company began ic...

Oil Patch Insider 02/22/2009
AGIA coordinator Myers shares thoughts on gas line; Obama, Harper taking the high-tech route
As previously reported in Petroleum News, on Jan. 21, Gov. Sarah Palin named Mark Myers coordinator for the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act. In a recent interview with Petroleum News, Myers answered th...

Certification dispute grows 02/22/2009
Industry disputes division's determination for BRPC North Shore well
That was something of a side issue when the State of Alaska terminated the Point Thomson unit in late 2006 for lack of development is starting to draw more attention. That issue is certification of w...

USGS issues Arctic climate change report 01/25/2009
People who want to know more about the science of climate change, especially as it pertains to the Arctic regions, might want to take a look at a new report entitled "Past Climate Variability and Chan...

Mark Myers returns to state government 01/25/2009
Mark Myers, former director of the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas, is returning to Alaska. Gov. Sarah Palin announced Jan. 21 that Myers has been named coordinator for the Alaska Gasline Inducement A...

Certified wells good policy 01/25/2009
Consultant finds no decertified wells, says certification encourages exploration, development
When Director of the Division of Oil and Gas Mark Myers declared the Point Thomson unit in default in the fall of 2005 it was for lack of an acceptable plan of development. He rejected the 22nd unit...

All about the climate 01/25/2009
Challenging future for permitting as climate change initiatives gain traction
The question of whether climate change will impact the regulatory situation in Alaska is now past, attorney Eric Fjelstad from Perkins Coie LLP told the Seminar Group's Permitting Strategies in Alaska...

The Explorers 2008: Chevron continues winter exploration at White Hills 11/23/2008
Chevron plugged and abandoned its three North Slope Alaska White Hills exploration wells at the end of last winter and is preparing to continue exploration this winter at the prospect in the foothills...

A major gas source for the future? 11/16/2008
DOI announces USGS assessment of North Slope gas hydrates and strikes a note of optimism about possible future production
On Nov. 12 the U.S. Department of the Interior announced the release of the U.S. Geological Survey assessment of technically recoverable gas from gas hydrates on the North Slope. As reported in the Oc...

Looking for the geologic links on North Slope 11/02/2008
DGGS-led team is finding evidence for how the geology and petroleum systems in different parts of the North Slope hook together
It shouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone that Alaska's North Slope holds some world class petroleum systems in its subsurface geology. But, as oil and gas exploration moves away from the Prud...

Looking for geologic links on North Slope 10/12/2008
DGGS-led team is finding evidence of how the geology and petroleum systems in different parts of the North Slope hook together
It shouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone that Alaska's North Slope holds some world class petroleum systems in its subsurface geology. But, as oil and gas exploration moves away from the Prud...

90 billion barrels 07/27/2008
USGS estimates 90 billion barrels of oil and 1,670 tcf of gas in the Arctic
On July 23 the U.S. Geological Survey released the long-awaited results of its appraisal of potential Arctic oil and gas resources. "The area north of the Arctic Circle has an estimated 90 billion ba...

USGS assessment adds to Greenland picture 06/15/2008
West Greenland-East Canada Province estimated to have 7 billion barrels of oil, 52 tcf gas, 1billion barrels natural gas liquids
The U.S. Geological Survey has made another contribution to the understanding of oil and natural gas resources within the Arctic Circle by releasing an interim assessment of the offshore region betwee...

No off ramps 03/09/2008
Exxon insists it will take Point Thomson to small-scale production by 2014
Does the 23rd and latest plan of development for the ExxonMobil-operated Point Thomson unit at the eastern end of Alaska's North Slope just present a series of good intentions, or does it commit the o...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Chevron: working across the state 11/18/2007
White Hills exploration to begin this winter, company continues to look at Cook Inlet opportunities
Chevron, an oil and gas explorer and producer in Alaska for decades, will begin exploration drilling this winter at its White Hills prospect in the Brooks Range foothills on the southern edge of the N...

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...

Mark Myers on USGS, scientific challenges 09/23/2007
U.S. Geological Survey Director Mark Myers, an AAPG member who was nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate in 2006, heads up an entity that has more than 10,000 scientists, technicians...

Polar bear population seen declining 09/16/2007
Two-thirds of the world's polar bears will be killed off by 2050 - and the entire population gone from Alaska - because of thinning sea ice from global warming in the Arctic, government scientists for...