Alberta oil sands get a break 03/28/2010
Ontario, Quebec shelve opposition, send delegations to buying-selling forum; EU backs down; industry leaders make stewardship case
The Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec are rethinking their public attacks on the Alberta oil sands and the European Union has bowed to Canadian pressure by agreeing not to erect trade barriers...

EIA WTI forecast steady at $80 a barrel 03/21/2010
Energy Information Administration expects crude oil price to rise to $82 by end of the year, and to reach $85 by end of next year
Although daily price fluctuations continue, the Energy Information Administration's forecast for the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil has remained relatively stable over the last quarter, th...

Canada poised to sell assets 03/21/2010
Canada's Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, on the lookout for ways to drag down Canada's projected C$54 billion deficit for 2010-11, might some answers in offshore Newfoundland and the Northwest Territor...

Tossing free trade carries risks 03/21/2010
NAFTA protects energy flow from Canada to Lower 48; Deutsche Bank study highlights political, economic advantages of open border
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is seeking backing for a bill to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement, and with it guarantees of U.S. access to a share of Canada's oil and natural gas pr...

From deserts of sand to deserts of ice: To Antarctica and back 03/21/2010
The differences are obvious, but Abdulla AlMisnad traveled to Antarctica to learn about the similarities between his desert homeland and the southernmost point on Earth. AlMisnad is the first native o...

ACES: more bad than good 03/21/2010
House panel hears mostly nays, a few yeas, on results of ACES production tax
When House Resources heard comments from industry March 10 on its proposed changes to Alaska's current production tax it heard a litany of woes about what is wrong with ACES, Alaska's Clear and Equita...

A change of mind 03/21/2010
Stevens opts for in-state gas-line routes from NS to Kenai or Valdez
In a major change of heart since leaving office, former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens now thinks that LNG exports into the Pacific Rim from Alaska present the optimum solution for bringing North Slope gas to...

TG World drops interest in Sak River 03/14/2010
Calgary independent cites poor test results from Sak River No. 1-A sidetrack, retaining interest in other joint venture properties
The Canadian independent TG World Energy Corp. is giving up its stake in a North Slope exploration well after judging initial production test results unsatisfactory. A production test of the Kuparuk...

BP earns $1.89B in '09 03/14/2010
Company sees slight drop in Alaska profits, big drop in sales and taxes
BP Exploration (Alaska)'s 2009 balance sheet provides a pretty good example of how the progressive nature of Alaska production taxes impacts profits for a major oil company. BP earned $1.89 billion in...

Senate Finance proposes gas tax change 03/07/2010
Committee Co-Chair Bert Stedman of Sitka says with gas and oil prices diverging, gas production tax needs to be severed from oil
There are a number of tax change bills in the Alaska Legislature and another is about to be added, but this one is perhaps more time sensitive than some others. Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, co-chair o...

Oil sands action in overdrive 03/07/2010
Syncrude Canada brings possible C$15B expansion back to life; France's Total bails out of thermal-recovery pilot; Shell hikes costs
Turn your back for a minute these days and you're bound to miss some action in the Alberta oil sands. In the space of 48 hours, starting Feb. 24, the news came in a torrent. • Syncrude Canada pumped f...

A strange year 03/07/2010
ConocoPhillips' year-end filings make 2009 in Alaska hard to pin down
ConocoPhillips' annual report usually arrives in the middle of the Alaska Legislative session, providing plenty of fodder for lawmakers arguing about the state's policy toward the oil industry. This y...

Twin reports examine rural fuel pricing 02/28/2010
ISER and AG find no signs of illegal activity, but see areas where lack of transparency makes solutions difficult to find
Fuel prices in rural Alaska seem to play by the rules of the market, but the market in rural Alaska is so unusual it makes fuel prices hard to decipher, according to two new reports. Factors ranging f...

No time to procrastinate in oil sands 02/28/2010
Report by Macquarie Capital Markets Canada expects no letup in revival of oil sands development; 590,000 bpd under construction
The rewards will go to those who are quickest out of the starting blocks while those who dither will pay a price, says an investment banker's assessment of the sudden rebound in Alberta oil sands deve...

Gas inflates jobs, GDP 02/28/2010
Study separates gas impact from oil; C$106B contribution to Canada's economy
A campaign to make natural gas the fuel of North America's energy future has received a mighty hoist from a new study that estimates gas accounted for 6.7 percent, or C$106 billion of Canada's Gross D...

ACES war continues 02/28/2010
Industry says tax hurting investment; admin consultant says it's in range
Testimony to the Senate Finance Committee Feb. 22 and 23 provided insight into the battle over Alaska's oil and gas production tax. The committee had been hearing from the administration on how the st...

Pioneer tests its Cosmopolitan sidetrack 02/21/2010
Independent conducts workover of Hansen well in Alaska's Cook Inlet, plans fracturing, possibly another Cosmo appraisal well by '12
Pioneer Natural Resources recently completed a flow test on an appraisal well tapping its offshore Cosmopolitan unit in Alaska's lower Cook Inlet. The well, known as the Hansen 1A-L1, is a sidetrack t...

EIA expects stronger spring crude market 02/21/2010
Oil prices still fluctuating; $81 per barrel average expected in second half of 2010, $84 in 2011; forecast good for natural gas
While crude oil prices continue to fluctuate, the U.S. Energy Information Administration expects the crude oil market to strengthen this spring, with West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices averaging...

Oil sands underpin Alberta's finances 02/21/2010
Conventional oil, gas edged out by sands, with production in both forecast to decline as production, revenues from oil sands rise
The reasons for the Alberta government's refusal to cave in to demands and slow the pace of oil sands development are now coming into sharper focus. The province's budget for the fiscal year 2010-11...

Moratoria may cost U.S. $2.36 trillion 02/21/2010
New study assesses the impact on U.S. economy of keeping closed federal land off limits for OandG exploration and development
In 2008, faced with energy security issues and soaring oil prices, President Bush and the U.S. Congress eliminated some decades-long moratoria on oil and gas development in huge tracts of federal offs...

Big Risk, Bigger Rewards: Alaska's Cook Inlet basin 02/14/2010
Cook Inlet, a major sea inlet between the Kenai Peninsula and the mainland of Southcentral Alaska, lies over part of a deep sedimentary basin that has formed between the Kenai Mountains and the mounta...

Big Risk, Bigger Rewards: Two newcomers with two strategies 02/14/2010
Pioneer and Eni both sanctioned nearshore projects in the Beaufort Sea, but took different approaches to development
As resource basins mature, and production drops, companies can make smaller plays economic by using existing infrastructure - which has excess capacity as production peaks and drops - to bring down co...

Big Risk, Bigger Rewards: The strategy of stepping out at Alpine 02/14/2010
At the Colville Rover unit, sequential development gave ConocoPhillips a way to make sure 'big' was also 'big enough'
For the time being, "big" in Alaska is a lot bigger than what most people think of as big. After more than 30 years of oil sales from one of the largest resource basins in North America, the infrastru...

Big Risk, Bigger Rewards: Life expectancy climbs as pipeline ages 02/14/2010
With proper maintenance, reasonable costs, conduit for Alaska North Slope petroleum products can flow to tidewater indefinitely
As the trans-Alaska oil pipeline ages, its life expectancy is actually increasing. When oil first flowed through the 800-mile conduit in 1977, it was expected to transport crude and other petroleum p...

Revenue responds to ACES tax concerns 02/07/2010
Both oil industry investment and employment have increased since the introduction of both the state's ACES production tax and the preceding form of the tax, known as PPT, said Alaska Commissioner of R...