TransCanada rethinks nuclear future 11/18/2007
Against a background of bullish talk by France's state-owned nuclear energy conglomerate about the potential for nuclear reactors in Alberta, utility powerhouse TransCanada is having second thoughts a...

LNG good option 10/28/2007
BG says increasing globalization of market bodes well for North Slope gas
Would Alaska's natural gas be best exported by LNG carrier or by pipeline through Canada to the Lower 48? The answer depends on which economic crystal ball you look in. And BG, one of the world's larg...

Agrium shutting down 09/30/2007
Kenai Peninsula nitrogen facility being mothballed until it gets new feedstock
Agrium is closing its nitrogen fertilizer operations on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula by the end of September due to a shortage of natural gas supply in Alaska's Cook Inlet basin, the Calgary-based company...

Look up ... way up 09/09/2007
Nexen, OPTI JV in labor crunch at Long Lake oil sands project; forced to delay startups, hike costs by another 10-15 percent
Canadian independent Nexen and technology innovator OPTI Canada are close to finding an answer to a question that has bedeviled civilization: How high is up? The joint partners in the Long Lake oil sa...

Pearce sets record straight 09/09/2007
Federal coordinator for Alaska gas line clarifies, corrects statements quoted in press
Sept. 5 news reports carried statements from Drue Pearce, the federal coordinator for Alaska gas pipeline projects, that were incorrect, Pearce's communication director Jennifer Thompson told Petroleu...

Feasting on Canada 08/26/2007
Abu Dhabi's TAQA swallows Pioneer assets for $540 million as part of $3 billion expansion plan, adding 10,000 boe per day
Canada has leapt to the top of the shopping list for Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. (better known as TAQA). Having already locked up its acquisition of Northrock Resources from Pogo Producing earlier t...

B.C. LNG plant on the move 08/12/2007
Hit by cost inflation, WestPac relocates closer to major markets, but encounters early environmental opposition; argues the benefits new site
Privately held WestPac LNG has derailed plans for an LNG terminal on the northern British Columbia coast, citing runaway construction costs as one of its reasons, and proposed a more ambitious underta...

Peabody, ConocoPhillips explore SNG 07/29/2007
Using Midwest coal and proprietary ConocoPhillips E-GAS™ technology, partners look to produce 1.5 tcf over 30-year period
Peabody Energy and ConocoPhillips plan to explore development of a commercial-scale coal-to-substitute natural gas facility using proprietary ConocoPhillips E-GAS™ technology. The companies said July...

Regulators clear Quebec LNG plans 07/08/2007
The Canadian and Quebec governments have approved plans for a liquefied natural gas terminal on the shores of the St. Lawrence River, improving the partners' prospects of securing supplies from Russia...

'Gorilla' project unveiled 06/24/2007
U.S. oil refinery would be first in three decades; cost ranges from $8-to $10B
After months of speculating among farmers and community leaders near Elk Point, S.D., the so-called "Gorilla" project has finally been unmasked: a huge 400,000 barrel per day "green" oil refinery and...

Schwarzenegger rejects LNG plan 06/03/2007
With BHP's LNG terminal shot down, Sempra's Mexican project remains frontrunner to supply California with imported natural gas
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected an application May 18 by Australian energy company BHP Billiton to build an $800 million floating liquefied natural gas terminal off the Southern Califor...

Legislature passes Alaska Railroad bonding for Agrium 05/20/2007
On May 12 the Alaska House of Representatives concurred with Senate changes to a bill authorizing the Alaska Railroad Corp. to issue up to $2.9 billion in bonds for the Agrium Blue Sky project to repl...

House OKs railroad bonding for Agrium 04/29/2007
The Alaska House passed a bill April 25 authorizing the Alaska Railroad Corp. to issue up to $2.9 billion in bonds to participate in the Agrium Kenai gasification project. House Bill 229, sponsored b...

Assessment puts squeeze on oil sands 04/15/2007
Opposition-dominated committee calls for carbon neutral by 2020 through carbon capture, credits trading; wants water, gas limits
The political pressures on Canada's oil sands sector to "adequately" tackle the social, environmental and economic problems it poses have intensified with the release of a 92-page assessment by the Ho...

Shell drops LNG plans in Louisiana 04/08/2007
Offshore facility in Gulf faced opposition over environmental issues, but import capacity seems adequate for available supplies
Royal Dutch Shell has dropped plans for a liquefied natural gas import facility 38 miles south of Louisiana's Cameron Parish, citing the substantial capacity already available for importing liquef...

Finding a feedstock answer 04/01/2007
Nova Chemicals, Aux Sable to build Alberta plant to remove gas liquids from Alliance Pipeline as ethane feedstock for petrochemical industry
The Alberta government has notched the first positive response to its incentive plan aimed at building ethane supplies for the petrochemical industry. And Arctic gas from both Alaska and the Northwest...

Oil Patch Insider 03/18/2007
Agrium on Nikiski plant
The Feb. 18 issue of Petroleum News carried an Oil Patch Insider story about Agrium CEO Mike Wilson's remarks at a Feb. 13 Goldman Sachs forum concerning the firm's Nikiski, Alaska nitrogen facility. ...

'Fort McMoney' gets helping hand 03/11/2007
Alberta government pumps C$396 million into region to ease strains on oil sands capital and boomtown for health care, housing and water treatment; opposition parties favor moratorium or slowdown in growth
The price of progress has just cost the Alberta government another C$396 million. That's what the government is pumping into health care, affordable housing, water treatment and other services to ease...

Agrium teams with Alaska Railroad 03/04/2007
Usibelli, Homer Electric also working Blue Sky project to gasify coal as feedstock for fertilizer plant, produce power for sale
Agrium is in phase 2, front-end engineering design, of its Kenai Blue Sky project, which would use gasified coal as feedstock to replace natural gas for the company's Nikiski fertilizer facility. In a...

Two Gulf LNG terminals approved 02/25/2007
Chevron, independent firm get FERC permission for Mississippi terminals that can import up to 3.1 bcf daily between them
Two terminals a mile apart have been OK'd for importing liquefied natural gas into the Pascagoula, Miss., area, near several major interstate pipelines. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announ...

One shelved, seven still standing 02/18/2007
Unable to solve supply problems, Anadarko mothballs Nova Scotia LNG plans; only Irving-Repsol project has certain supplies, leaving seven Canadian projects in various stages of development; Kitimat only fully permitted terminal for the West Coast
Once on the leading edge of Canada's ambitions to enter the liquefied natural gas age, the Bear Head project in Nova Scotia has been mothballed. After an apparent losing struggle to arrange LNG suppli...

Oil Patch Insider 02/18/2007
TAPS starts first new electric pumps; Agrium writes off Nikiski; Palin slams Exxon; Petro-Canada not going to operate in NPR-A
The startup of the new electric pump system at pump station 9 of the trans-Alaska pipeline has started to bring to fruition the years of work involved in the strategic reconfiguration of the pipeline...

ANGDA goes local 02/04/2007
Alaska Gas Market System looks at 1.25 bcf line to Southcentral, Valdez
Hung out to dry during the Murkowski administration - which focused exclusively on a project by the major Prudhoe Bay owners to take Alaska North Slope gas to the Lower 48 - the Alaska Natural Gas Dev...

Partnership weighs 'syngas' plant 01/28/2007
Sherritt International, a diversified Canadian resource company, and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board are exploring the prospect of building a C$1.5 billion plant in Alberta to produce synthet...

EOR research in final stages 01/07/2007
International researchers are involved in a study that is being closely watched around the world by governments and companies anxious to know whether there is a future in burying carbon dioxide, the l...