Point Thomson EIS public meetings set 01/17/2010
Five public meetings have been set on the Point Thomson project environmental impact statement. The proposed project is an oil and natural gas condensate extraction operation at Point Thomson on the N...

Denali sets open season date 01/17/2010
Will submit package to FERC in April, conduct 90-day OS beginning in July
Both Alaska natural gas pipeline projects have now set dates for their open seasons, the quest for customers to commit to filling a proposed line with natural gas. Denali, a joint venture of BP and C...

Exxon wins a round 01/17/2010
For second time, judge disallows breakup of Alaska's Point Thomson unit
An Alaska judge on Jan. 11 dealt the state government a blow in its quest to wrest control of the rich Point Thomson oil and gas field from ExxonMobil and other leaseholders. Superior Court Judge Shar...

Exxon's legal extra 01/10/2010
Just ahead of Point Thomson ruling, firm touts drilling progress; state objects
With a judge on the brink of issuing a key ruling in the battle for control of the rich Point Thomson oil and gas field, ExxonMobil has filed a last-minute statement from its Alaska chief in hopes of...

ExxonMobil buys XTO Energy for $31 billion 12/20/2009
XTO has two platforms in Cook Inlet, which will make Exxon a producer in Alaska; main focus of purchase XTO's natural gas assets
ExxonMobil will buy XTO Energy Inc. in an all-stock deal worth $31 billion as the oil giant moved aggressively Dec. 14 to capitalize on the growing supply of natural gas at home. The deal could signal...

Savant ahead of schedule 12/20/2009
Vigil: ACES works for small explorers, producers; hires lobbyist to make sure Alaska legislators aware of independent's position
Savant Alaska is ahead of schedule on the construction of its ice road to the eastern North Slope's Badami unit, where the company plans to finish an oil exploration well it began last winter. The wel...

Noah: standalone line work on schedule 12/20/2009
Parks Highway route selected because it is shorter, could cost less; gas conditioning in Cook Inlet, at PBU facilities, considered
Harry Noah, special manager of the in-state gas pipeline project, told Alaska legislators Dec. 16 that the standalone or bullet line - a project which would deliver gas just within Alaska, not to outs...

Exploration credits holding steady 12/20/2009
Proposed FY 2011 budget has $180M for tax credits, funds in-state and out-of-state gas, variety of other resource-related projects
The $10.5 billion budget proposed by Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell on Dec. 14 continues to fund many resource development projects started under the Palin administration, and creates several new projects,...

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...

State: oil at $67 in FY 2010 12/13/2009
State expect prices to rise through 2019, production to rise slightly in 2013 before falling again; Galvin says industry spending expected to be $4.5B in FY 2010, $5B in FY 2011
When the State of Alaska released its revenue forecast in December 2008, guessing the price of oil in the coming year seemed as reliable as guessing the weather in the coming year. In the previous six...

Logistics also an issue at Pioneer's Oooguruk 12/06/2009
Point Thomson isn't the only North Slope field to face logistics challenges. Getting supplies to Oooguruk was one of the issues addressed by Ken Sheffield, president of Pioneer Natural Resources Alas...

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...

TG World positive on NS exploration 12/06/2009
BRPC JV partner spells out some details of seismic and drilling program across the North Slope; sees value of exploration credits
As the only outfit engaged in exploration onshore or offshore northern Alaska this winter, Brooks Range Petroleum Corp., operator for a joint venture of small independents, looks like having a lonely...

BP: More challenges than a few years ago 11/29/2009
Minge tells RDC BP's 50-year Alaska strategy a dream, not a promise; cost structure threatens light oil; costs up 4 times oil price
BP has talked in recent years about the company's 50-year future in Alaska. But that strategy is "a dream: It's not a promise," BP Exploration (Alaska) President John Minge told the Resource Developm...

Projecting the jobs 11/29/2009
AEDC CEO Bill Popp works with Petroleum News and Mining News on new project forecast
Like one of Scrooge's Christmas apparitions, a ghost of Alaska's future could portend doom, or could just prove to be a warning of the consequences of not taking appropriate action. And from the persp...

Parnell: ESA for species 11/29/2009
Governor tells RDC ESA not land-use planning tool; budgets for ESA attorney
Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell gave a clear indication of focus resource issues for his administration when he opened the Resource Development Council's 30th annual conference in Anchorage Nov. 18. The gov...

The Explorers 2009: BP Exploration (Alaska) 11/15/2009
BP Exploration opened its first office in Alaska in 1959, and drilled a confirmation well for the Prudhoe Bay discovery a decade later. Today it operates the unit and its participating areas and satel...

The Explorers 2009: Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. 11/15/2009
Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. is the operating arm of the Kansas-based Alaska Venture Capital Group and the lead company in a multipartner venture responsible for some of the most active drilling on th...

The Explorers 2009: ExxonMobil 11/15/2009
ExxonMobil is a big company with a history in Alaska to match. The company owns the largest share of the Prudhoe Bay unit and helped bring the trans-Alaska oil pipeline into operation in 1977 but also...

The Explorers 2009: Northern Alaska and Arctic offshore 11/15/2009
In 1968 the discovery of the giant Prudhoe Bay field, the first field to be discovered on Alaska's North Slope and among the 20 largest oil fields ever discovered worldwide, triggered a northern Alask...

The Explorers 2009: Chevron Alaska 11/15/2009
Chevron is one of the largest players in Alaska, but sometimes gets overshadowed by companies that operate more units or run higher profile exploration campaigns. Chevron arrived in Alaska more than 1...

The Explorers 2009: Armstrong affiliate 70 and 148 top bidder at North Slope lease sale 11/15/2009
It was déjà vu all over again as Alaska Division of Oil and Gas Director Kevin Banks read 93 bids for 80 tracts in the state's 2009 areawide North Slope oil and gas lease sale in Anchorage Oct. 28. A...

State says line on schedule, on budget 11/15/2009
Alaska commissioners of Natural Resources, Revenue, report to legislators on the state-backed TransCanada gas pipeline project
The AGIA-licensed Alaska Pipeline Project is on schedule and on budget, Alaska's commissioners of Revenue and Natural Resources said in a report to legislators released Oct. 31. The report, the secon...

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...

Renewable energy investments recommended 11/08/2009
Draft report from Senate Resources, Energy committees also recommended 'staying the course' on AGIA state-supported gas project
The draft of a report on the state's energy situation, released Oct. 19 by members of the Alaska Senate energy policy group, provides a wide-ranging look at proposals from energy-efficient buildings t...