MINING NEWS: Mining values set records in 2006 11/25/2007
Higher prices, world-class projects such as Red Dog, Pebble drive Alaska exploration, development, production, employment
Alaska mining activity climbed to new heights in 2006 with the value of exploration, development and production exceeding $3.5 billion. Production values more than doubled, leaping to $2.86 billion fr...

MINING NEWS: Is U.S. Senate end of road for H.R. 2262? 11/25/2007
Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007 passes U.S. House; other body looks at throwing it out and starting with clean slate
Representatives Nick Rahall, D-W.V., and Jim Costa, D-Calif., introduced H.R. 2262, the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007, in the U.S. House of Representatives as a replacement for the 1872...

AEA Railbelt conference set 11/25/2007
The Alaska Energy Authority has announced the venue and a draft agenda for its technical conference on a potential Alaska Railbelt Electrical Grid Authority. The conference will be held on Nov. 26 and...

Role of Arctic gas uncertain 11/25/2007
Regardless of how Canada's energy consumption evolves, the National Energy Board has no doubt that demand for natural gas will rise, led by home and business heating uses, with oil sands extraction an...

Iran: OPEC will study currency basket 11/25/2007
OPEC will study the weak U.S. dollar's effect on the oil cartel's earnings and investigate the possibility of a currency basket, Iran's oil minister said Nov. 18. "We have agreed to set up a committe...

Oil futures jump on dollar Fed forecast 11/25/2007
Crude oil prices approach $100 a barrel after U.S. dollar hits new low, talk Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again
Oil prices resumed their march toward $100 Nov. 20, rising to records over $98 a barrel as futures drew strength from a declining dollar, news of refinery problems and speculation that the Federal Res...

Climate change takes U.S. center stage 11/25/2007
Consultant: Climate change, energy security concerns setting the agenda for U.S. government energy policy; could favor NS gas line
There was a time not too long ago when the forces that guided what passed for a U.S. energy policy in the corridors of Washington, D.C., could be summed up as a three-statement mantra: maximize supply...

Tupi find has Brazil considering OPEC 11/25/2007
Brazil is to consider joining OPEC after it has gauged the impact on its oil exports from its newly discovered giant offshore Tupi oil field, the country's ambassador to Saudi Arabia said Nov. 16. Is...

Rick Fox: Shell in Alaska for long haul 11/25/2007
Although a lawsuit has put Beaufort Sea drilling on hold in 2007 company moved ahead with Chukchi seismic and other programs
Despite the setback of a court-enforced suspension of Shell's Beaufort Sea drilling program, Rick Fox, the company's Alaska asset manager, gave an upbeat assessment of Shell's progress in Alaska at th...

Cosmo drilling done, flow test next 11/25/2007
Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska has finished drilling a horizontal appraisal well in the 25,000-acre Cosmopolitan unit in the Cook Inlet basin. Company President Ken Sheffield told attendees of the m...

Canada lags behind emissions target 11/25/2007
The Canadian government will fall far short of its own 2020 target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent from 2006 levels, the government's own energy regulator predicts. Even with bold m...

Ecuador's president urges political role for OPEC 11/25/2007
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, in his first public speech since his country's official re-entry into OPEC, said Nov. 18 that the 13-nation oil producer group must take on a more political role an...

President likely to veto OPEC lawsuit bill 11/25/2007
U.S. President George W. Bush is still likely to veto legislation allowing U.S. institutions to sue the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries over its alleged actions in pushing up oil prices,...

Cash-strapped Fox sets sights on high-cost Alaska 11/25/2007
Alaska newcomer Fox Petroleum is a very small player in a very large oil patch inhabited by much larger, better-financed, better-equipped, and more successful exploration and production companies. Fi...

Chamber report issues energy wakeup call 11/25/2007
Business group calls for fiscal, energy strategies to meet short- and long-term needs of Alaska economy, beleaguered residents
Getting a grip on Alaska's energy outlook and developing a successful strategy to meet the needs of Alaskans now and in the future is the subject of a new 11-page report published by the Anchorage Cha...

Energy board: Jury out on oil sands 11/25/2007
Beset from all sides, sector production scaled back by 200,000 barrels per day by 2015; despite costs and regulatory burdens
It is one of those wake-up calls that come in the middle of a disturbed sleep. You're not sure whether it is real or imagined. But the message is clear enough, spelled out in temperate language by one...

Oil Patch Insider 11/25/2007
For whom the Bell tolls
These are early days, but Brendan Bell could be entering rarified atmosphere as a politician from northern Canada who can make his mark at the federal level. Youthful, energetic and on top of his file...

LNG a continental wild card 11/25/2007
North America could benefit from tapping into global resource; greater LNG volumes could displace higher-cost conventional, unconventional, frontier supplies
Liquefied natural gas could play a key role in ensuring supply-and-demand balance and steady prices in North American markets over at least the next seven years, offsetting declines in Canadian export...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Union Energy takes Kavik leases 11/18/2007
A new company won three leases in the State of Alaska's annual North Slope areawide lease sale on Oct. 24, 2007. Union Energy (Alaska) LLC, which gave the Division of Oil and Gas a contact address in...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: XTO more than doubles oil reserves 11/18/2007
XTO Energy, operator of the Middle Ground Shoal field in Alaska's Cook Inlet basin, is a good example of what an independent oil company can achieve in prolonging the life of an aging oil field. Midd...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Storm Cat Energy drops out of Alaska 11/18/2007
Storm Cat Energy Corp., less than two years after drilling an exploration well in the coalbed-methane-rich Matanuska-Susitna Borough, has dropped its pursuit of natural gas reserves in Alaska. Instea...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Small independents in high gear 11/18/2007
Five small EandP gas companies plan to drill exploration wells on Alaska's North Slope winter 2007-08
Five small independent oil and gas companies expect to drill exploration wells on Alaska's North Slope in the winter exploration season of 2007-08. In the past, the highest number of small independent...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Exploring on pause, development on go 11/18/2007
Pioneer focusing on Oooguruk development, Cosmo delineation; exploration still on hold due to disappointing results, concern about Alaska's tax regime
Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources has no immediate plans to resume its Alaska oil and gas exploration program, Timothy Dove, Pioneer's president and chief operating officer, said on Sept. 27, 200...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Marathon continues to chase inlet gas 11/18/2007
Company sees significant opportunity in the Cook Inlet region but wants competitive gas pricing and a stable fiscal, regulatory environment in Alaska
Although oil and gas production in Alaska is declining, there are still plenty of resources to find and develop, Mitch Little, Marathon's Alaska production manager, told Petroleum News Oct. 2, 2007. "...

THE EXPLORERS 2007: Petro-Canada: From operator to partner 11/18/2007
A better headline for this story might have been "Petro-Canada: From possible operator to partner" because the company had not actually drilled a well in Alaska when it decided to continue to play the...