NEWS BULLETIN

July 13, 2006 --- Vol. 12, No. 38July 2006

TransCanada urges contract completion

Hal Kvisle, president and chief executive of TransCanada, dropped in on the Alaska Legislature today by letter, urging the state to complete its contract negotiations with the North Slope producers.

In the letter, which Gov. Frank Murkowski read parts of during his address to a joint House-Senate session of the Legislature, Kvisle said TransCanada recognizes the importance of the agreement the state has reached with North Slope producers. He said it is difficult to see how a North Slope gas pipeline project could proceed without the producers, and reminded the administration that it has advised it to be wary of independent pipeline proposals which did not include the producers.

TransCanada has declined to join various consortiums to develop the pipeline without producer support, Kvisle said. He mentioned rights which TransCanada holds in Alaska and said TransCanada continues to be willing to make those available to an Alaska project as long as TransCanada builds the Canadian side of the line.

Kvisle said that with the resolution of some matters in the contract, TransCanada is generally supportive and urged the state to settle the contract and move forward with the project.

Escopeta to drill North Alexander in January

The same company that is bringing a jack-up rig to Cook Inlet in February or March to drill three offshore wells is planning a fourth and earlier well at its North Alexander prospect in January.

Houston independent Escopeta Oil’s Alaska subsidiary, Escopeta Energy Co., is in the final stages of permitting the onshore well, Escopeta President Danny Davis told Petroleum News this week.

North Alexander lies onshore on the northwestern edge of the Cook Inlet basin along the western margin of the Susitna River drainage. The prospect is six to 10 miles north of the Stump Lake gas field; and six to nine miles east of the Lewis River gas field, both of which have established gas production.

ASRC Energy Services is the main contractor on the job, Davis said.

Note: See full story in the July 16 issue of Petroleum News


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