Mining News: Wanted: Mineral prospectors with skills 01/17/2010
Far North territories, B.C. governments use mining incentives to ease financial burden of grassroots exploration by individuals
Just as junior and major mining companies have important roles to play in the chain of developments that lead, hopefully, to discovery of substantial mineral deposits and subsequent commercial develop...

Mining News: Alaska miners face hopeful New Year 01/17/2010
State's fairly independent economic cycle and growing global demand for minerals will spawn many opportunities for industry
In my simple world of cause and effect, when I see things happen I always leap to the conclusion that there will be a related subsequent development. When I see the United States borrow untold billio...

Mining News: Usibelli thrives on coal exports in 2009 01/17/2010
Miner anticipates continued strength in overseas sales in 2010; groups file suit to curb alleged 'Clean Water Act' violations
Increased interest in Alaska coal from buyers in Asia and Chile boosted exports from the Usibelli Coal Mine to record levels in 2009. According to Steve Denton, vice president for business developmen...

FERC staff offer example 01/17/2010
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff members from the Office of Energy Projects Division of Pipeline Certificates were in Anchorage Jan. 12 for a workshop on the open season process for Alaska....

Mackenzie project gets hearing dates 01/17/2010
The Mackenzie Gas Project has been given its roadmap for the final regulatory phases. Canada's National Energy Board said it will start hearing concluding arguments April 12 in Yellowknife and wrap up...

Apache takes control of Kitimat LNG 01/17/2010
U.S. independent Apache has made a decisive move to the forefront of North America's changing energy markets by taking control of British Columbia's Kitimat LNG project. The Canadian unit of Apache an...

Greening of Oil magazine launches 01/17/2010
Anchorage-based Petroleum News has launched a new, international online magazine at www.greeningofoil.com. Greening of Oil is a science-based publication that tracks the environmental footprint of fos...

EIA forecasts $80 oil price this year 01/17/2010
Henry Hub natural gas spot price projected to average $5.36 per thousand cubic feet in '10; storage levels expected to remain high
The U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration said Jan. 12 in its Short-Term Energy Outlook that it expects the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil to average $80 per barrel...

Climate policy implications for Alaska 01/17/2010
The implications of emerging national and international climate policy for Alaskans will be presented by Dr. Matthew Berman of the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the Anchorage Chapter o...

Alberta energy minister demoted 01/17/2010
Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach has caved in to industry pressure and his government's freefall in the latest opinion polls by dumping Energy Minister Mel Knight in a major cabinet house-cleaning Jan. 13....

Tales of woe on North America's refinery row 01/17/2010
The trail of wreckage on North America's Refinery Row gained another victim Jan. 7 with Royal Dutch Shell's decision to turn its Montreal facility into a fuel terminal after failing to find a buyer fo...

BP seeks approval for new cost method 01/17/2010
Trans-Alaska oil pipeline carriers want FERC's help with rates; settlement efforts fail in long-running interstate tariffs dispute
Fed up with losing money, the company with the largest ownership stake in the trans-Alaska oil pipeline has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve a new method for allocating the co...

Talisman puts eggs in shale basket 01/17/2010
Talisman Energy is keeping mum about its Alaska interests as it gears up for the possible sale this year of 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of gas-weighted properties which could fetch up to...

Chukchi air permit takes Shell closer to 2010 drilling program 01/17/2010
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Jan. 7 decision to propose an amended air quality permit for Shell's planned exploration drilling in the Arctic Alaska outer continental shelf of the Chukchi...

Canada's upstream on upswing; '09 drilling licenses down 47% 01/17/2010
With Canadian government land sales slumping to a 17-year low and average natural gas prices at their lowest point in the past decade, it was no surprise that cash-squeezed producers slashed their dri...

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...

Greening of Oil: Deep shale gas drilling uses least amount of water 01/17/2010
Water protection council comparison shows nuclear, conventional oil next in line
In a country craving domestic sources of clean energy one would think Americans would welcome abundant supplies of newly discovered natural gas from shale. For the most part they do. But the process...

Oil Patch Bits: Stoel Rives expands corporate services in Alaska 01/10/2010
Stoel Rives LLP said Dec. 14 that corporate attorneys William H. Timme and John D. Kauffman have joined the firm's Anchorage office. Timme has spent more than 35 years counseling mostly Alaska Native...

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...

ExxonMobil joins critics of tariff hike 01/10/2010
ExxonMobil is among parties lodging concerns about Cook Inlet Pipe Line Co.'s steep tariff hike. Steven Serpati, on behalf of ExxonMobil, filed a brief public comment with the Regulatory Commission of...

Olgoonik, UIC to support Shell operations 01/10/2010
Shell is partnering with Olgoonik Corp., the Native village corporation for the Chukchi Sea coast village of Wainwright, and Ukpeaegvik Inupiat Corp., the Native village corporation for Barrow, to ope...

Our Arctic Neighbors: Russian president hears from Gazprom 01/10/2010
CEO of energy giant tells Dmitri Medvedev company's technology is innovative, especially on Yamal Peninsula in Arctic
Reporting to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller was effusive about the state-owned company's technological successes. In his speech to the presidential commission for moderni...

Time to take a stand on climate change? 01/10/2010
Alaska legislators want information to determine a strategy on responding to climate change actions and the use of the ESA in AK
The stakes are high and the rhetoric climbing in the debate between those who want to apply the Endangered Species Act for the protection of wildlife potentially threatened by a warming climate, and t...

FERC sets Alaska open season workshop 01/10/2010
Staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will hold an open season pre-filing workshop at the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage Jan. 12 from 1-5 p.m. FERC said the workshop wi...