The Explorers 2010: Interior Alaska basins 11/14/2010
Although analysts think that the majority of Alaska's oil and gas resources lie within the major basins of northern Alaska, Cook Inlet and the Bristol Bay area, there are several other basins around t...

The Explorers 2010: Alaska Peninsula and North Aleutian basin 11/14/2010
The North Aleutian basin, also known as the Bristol Bay basin, extends more than 200 miles along the north side of the Alaska Peninsula and out into the southern Bering Sea shelf. The southeastern por...

Canadian outpost stirs into action 04/11/2010
New Brunswick draws interest from two US-based gas producers; LNG import terminal delivers first gas; refinery upgrade completed
New Brunswick sits on the doorstep of New England and New York, one of the world's largest natural gas consuming regions. Until now, the Canadian province has been little more than a long-shot prospec...

Mining News: Remote territory offers mineral bonanza 03/28/2010
Government, industry focuses on unlocking secrets of ancient rocks as modern mining industry finds firm footing in Arctic North
No discussion of opening Canada's Far North to mineral resource development could get far without the focus turning to Nunavut, the nation's newest and least-explored territory. At one-fifth the size...

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...

The Explorers 2009: Interior Alaska basins 11/15/2009
Although analysts think that the majority of Alaska's oil and gas resources lie within the major basins of northern Alaska, Cook Inlet and the Bristol Bay area, there are several other basins around t...

The Explorers 2009: Alaska Peninsula and North Aleutian basin 11/15/2009
The North Aleutian basin, also known as the Bristol Bay basin, extends more than 200 miles along the north side of the Alaska Peninsula and out into the southern Bering Sea shelf. The southeastern por...

Salazar: Limits needed on OCS drilling 02/01/2009
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Jan. 27 the expansion of offshore oil drilling should be worked out with Congress as part of a broad energy blueprint and not independent action by his department. ...

Obama names Salazar to head Interior 12/21/2008
President-elect Barack Obama's pick for secretary of the Interior Department has been an opponent of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Obama announced Dec. 17 he's picking Color...

Interior proposes lower shale royalties 07/27/2008
Draft rules recommend rates as low as 5% as incentive for oil shale development on federal lands in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming
The Bush administration has proposed charging energy companies wanting to squeeze oil out of vast shale deposits in the West lower royalties than they pay for drilling on other federal lands, includi...

A sea change in North America 06/29/2008
Shale revives dreams of energy self-sufficiency extending over hundreds of years, driven by technological gains, oil prices
Whimsical or not, more commentators are suggesting that North America is on the verge of pushing back the "peak oil" threshold by hundreds of years. That was reminiscent of the loose talk in the 1960s...

Conoco strong in Arctic 04/06/2008
Strategy involves low-risk and frontier drilling, includes Chukchi Sea, Sverdrup
A combination of relatively low-risk drilling with bold moves into new frontiers would seem to characterize ConocoPhillips' current exploration strategy, according to a presentation at the company's 2...

Saskatchewan goes to the Wall 03/30/2008
New government gives priority to competitive royalties, taxes; plans incentives to promote development, offset slide in output
The Alberta petroleum industry is starting to look across the fence into Saskatchewan with a mixture of curiosity and envy. And why not? Governed for 16 years by the left-leaning New Democratic Party,...

Startup becomes land giant 02/10/2008
Oilsands Quest, which is trying to lead Saskatchewan into a commercial oil sands era, now holds what it claims are the largest contiguous leases in Canada after spending C$10 million to acquire more t...

Using an Alberta roadmap 01/27/2008
Oil shale researchers in the U.S. find hope on the long road to economic viability in the oil sands; shale pace also starts to build in Canada
Seldom has so much hype been showered on any aspect of the petroleum industry as the superlatives uttered about oil shale. Take just a few. The U.S. Department of Energy said total U.S. resources coul...

Alaska well-placed in global survey 12/23/2007
As reported in last week's issue of Petroleum News, Alaska trails Wyoming and Colorado among U.S. states, but edges out all Canadian provinces except Saskatchewan in a study of investment "friendlines...

Alberta getting nudged off center-stage as tax hikes prompt big EandP companies to shift capital spending to United States 12/23/2007
The verdicts are rolling in for Alberta's proposed new royalty regime as the leading EandP companies take the wrapping off their 2008 capital budgets. But, in the process, those companies are reinforcin...