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...

Saskatchewan startup rolls along 09/09/2007
Oilsands Quest shows no signs of wilting its trail-blazing efforts to commercialize Saskatchewan's oil sands deposits. It picked up five of six blocks of exploration licenses offered in the Saskatchew...

Shell reviews Mackenzie stake 07/22/2007
Shell Canada's 11.4 percent stake in the Mackenzie Gas Project is up for review now that Royal Dutch Shell has taken over the Canadian unit. Adrian Loader, the "caretaker" president of Shell Canada to...

Long-term Mac study nixed 07/22/2007
Green groups fail to persuade regulators to order independent gas line review
Two of the most influential environmental organizations in North America have failed to convince regulators to order an independent review of the Mackenzie Gas Project's long-term impacts. A motion fi...

Murphy named new BLM resources chief 06/24/2007
Tom Lonnie, director of the Bureau of Land Management for Alaska, said June 13 that Ted Murphy has been selected as the deputy state director for the Division of Resources, which oversees minerals and...

Sands top enviro hit list 06/24/2007
International environmentalists, think tanks put Alberta oil sands in cross-hairs
At the same time the Alberta oil sands are gaining attention from global investors they are also becoming a target for international environmental groups troubled by the consequences of developing wha...

Shell delays oil shale production decision 03/04/2007
A decision by Royal Dutch Shell on whether to begin commercial oil shale development won't happen by the end of this decade as planned because the permit process has taken longer than expected. Jill...

Shell's C$7.7 billion bid no slam-dunk 10/29/2006
Buying out Canadian assets could force Royal Dutch Shell to dig deeper; parent company wants to align Canadian decision-making
Royal Dutch Shell, still reeling from its 2004 reserves accounting scandal, is in a hurry to rearrange some of its global operations. It may be in too much of a hurry. A year after a complex merger of...

Shell: Greenhouse gases policy needed 09/17/2006
Hofmeister says debate is over, policy makers needed to address science of global climate change by keeping fuel prices high
Touting the importance of a "culture of conservation" and investment in alternative fuels, John Hofmeister sounded less the leader of the world's third-largest oil company as much as a speaker at an E...

MINING NEWS: Bonanza may await explorers in NPR-A South; miners want BLM to include coal, hard rock leasing 08/27/2006
As federal regulators plan the opening of the 9.2 million acres in the southern part of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to oil and gas leasing, one Alaska industry group is urging them to broade...

Contenders picked for shale development 04/23/2006
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management narrowed the field of oil companies hoping to exploit vast oil-shale reserves in Utah and Colorado, government officials said April 10. In a second elimination roun...

House OandG moves heavy oil incentives 04/16/2006
Bill intended to mesh with production profits tax to provide tax credits for challenged oil and gas goes on to House Resources
Rep. Norm Rokeberg, R-Anchorage, is working on a bill that would provide tax credits for challenged oil and gas development in the state, a bill which would work in conjunction with the production pro...

Shell pushes oil sands horizons 04/02/2006
'Big gamble' purchase of untapped resource could open way to 38 billion barrels; others venture into Peace River, Saskatchewan
Royal Dutch Shell is aligning itself with the finest traditions of the oil sands - blazing a new trail in an effort to unlock hundreds of millions of barrels that have so far defied technology. In fo...