PPT special session set for Oct.18; new oil tax not bringing in what projected, says governor 08/12/2007
A special session of the Alaska Legislature to review the state's new petroleum profits tax, passed last August, has been set for Oct. 18. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said at a press conference Aug. 3 th...

Oil Patch Insider 04/22/2007
AOGA's Brady to retire; AEWC and Maggie Ahmaogak part ways; Persily heads to D.C.
Judy Brady, executive director of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, plans to retire at the end of June after 14 years with the Anchorage-based group. AOGA's deputy director Marilyn Crockett will tak...

Oil Patch Insider 04/15/2007
Agrium takes first gas; Savant hires O'Keefe, looking for more exploration plays; Zimmerman resigns from Storm Cat
Agrium's Alaska spokeswoman Lisa Parker told Petroleum News April 11 that the company's Nikiski fertilizer facility received its first natural gas feedstock April 10 and will be back in production in...

Fiscal finding, draft LLC to Legislature 11/26/2006
Interim fiscal interest finding for North Slope gas pipeline contract includes proposed changes, limited liability corporation
In its last few weeks of office the administration of Gov. Frank Murkowski has wrapped up and passed to the Legislature and the incoming administration of Gov.-elect Sarah Palin an amended, but not re...

Piecing together the Palin puzzle 11/19/2006
Statements made during her campaign shed light on Alaska governor-elect's strategies and plans regarding major oil and gas issues
Sarah Palin's gubernatorial campaign slogan "New Energy for Alaska" promised a fresh look at Alaska's future and hinted that the energy industry would feature high on her administration's agenda. But...

Moving on or starting over? 09/24/2006
Members of Commonwealth North, including gas contract study group members, aren't in agreement on what should happen next
Commonwealth North discussed its study report on the proposed gas fiscal contract at a meeting Sept. 8 (see story in Sept. 17 issue of Petroleum News). The discussion didn't cover all of the points i...

CWN: Re-negotiate 09/17/2006
Commonwealth North says gas pipeline contract needs to be re-negotiated
Commonwealth North, the Anchorage-based public policy organization, has published a study of the proposed gas pipeline fiscal contract, and while praising the work of the administration of Alaska Gov....

Former DNR officials: Contract a bad deal 06/18/2006
Irwin, Rutherford say state is subsidizing the North Slope gas pipeline to the tune of $13.25 billion in contract governor negotiated
The proposed gas fiscal contract is a bad deal for the state, former Department of Natural Resource officials Tom Irwin and Marty Rutherford told Petroleum News following a Commonwealth North presenta...

Revenue forecast: prices up, volume down 12/25/2005
Change in production forecast due to maintenance, slower moving heavy oil, delay in projects like Point Thomson, Liberty
Prices being paid for Alaska North Slope crude oil are up, Alaska Revenue Commissioner Bill Corbus said Dec. 15, but ANS production continues a decline that began in 1988. The department's fall reven...

Gas project proponents square off 03/14/2004
Advocates of four plans to commercialize Alaska North Slope gas pitch their projects to Commonwealth North
It all boils down to answering some basic questions: Who? What? When? Where? And, of course, how much - how much money will it cost and how much gas will it move? Proponents of four projects to move...

Interior official calls on industry to help raise America's energy IQ 03/02/2003
Rebecca Watson tells Commonwealth North that ANWR discussion 'hampered by this low national energy IQ,' says right now we're hearing just one side of the debate
Rebecca Watson of the Department of the Interior cited a recent report on America's low energy IQ as a problem in national discussions over domestic energy production - from natural gas development in...

Sen. Murkowski expects first major ANWR floor fight in March 02/23/2003
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said if a provision to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration is added to a budget reconciliation bill as expected, the "first major floor fight"...

Arctic commission says if U.S. ratifies U.N. treaty it can lay claim to oil rich Chukchi Cap 02/16/2003
Murkowski, who sponsored the bill that created the U.S. Arctic Research Commission in 1984, calls for bottom mapping
The U.S. Arctic Research Commission told Commonwealth North members Feb. 11 that it recommends the United States ratify a United Nations treaty which would allow the United States to claim oil rich la...

Bush believes climate change is real; renewable energy key to future, aide says 03/17/2002
David Garman told an Anchorage audience the Kyoto Protocol on climate change is 'an unratified and unratifiable treaty,' a mess left by Clinton
Environmental alarmists say the global climate is changing because man is burning fossil fuels and creating "greenhouse gases." Well, it turns out the Bush administration agrees that the global climat...

Stevens urges state Legislature to persist in ANWR battle 01/27/2002
Arctic Power funding advances from House Finance Committee, pro-ANWR development group will stage intense three-month campaign
It's highly important that the state continue the effort to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for exploration, U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens told a joint session of the Alaska Legi...

Murkowski sees Sen. Miller's endorsement of ANWR as sign tide is turning 01/20/2002
Sen. Frank Murkowski told Commonwealth North Jan. 15 he is encouraged by prospects for ANWR development. "The prognosis, in my opinion, is very optimistic," Murkowski said, adding that people see the...

Official claims 1987 agreement gives Canada say-so on ANWR drilling 11/25/2001
Roger Simmons, Seattle-based Consul General of Canada for Alaska, Washington, Idaho and Oregon, told Commonwealth North Nov. 20 that a 1987 agreement between Canada and the United States for the conse...

Commonwealth North report warns against undermining gasline viability 09/30/2001
Says state should fully participate in ANS gas commercialization decisions, but should not damage commerciality of less favored routes or projects
A Commonwealth North study of policy principles for developing Alaska North Slope gas has left unresolved some major issues: the route, state of Alaska equity participation, regulatory streamlining an...

New study says Cook Inlet needs new gas reserves 04/28/2001
At issue - what can be discovered and developed in Southcentral, what needs to be imported, to keep area running on natural gas
Cook Inlet natural gas reserves have been falling since 1982, because no significant new reserves have been added and the area will need new supplies - or storage facilities - to meet peak demand by t...

Jack Williams takes over ExxonMobil Alaska operations 04/28/2001
Jim Branch, Alaska production manager for ExxonMobil Production Co., has accepted a new assignment in the company's upstream worldwide headquarters office in Houston, and will be replaced by J.P. (Jac...

Pat Pourchot named Natural Resources commissioner 09/28/2000
Former legislator came to Alaska in 1972 with federal government, has also worked in state, private, Native sectors
Pat Pourchot was named commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources by Gov. Tony Knowles Aug. 29. Pourchot succeeds John Shively who resigned in July effective Sept. 8 to spend more time with h...