Oil Patch Insider

Petroleum News headline sends wrong message for Enbridge

An article in the Aug. 5 issue of Petroleum News carried a headline that was misleading. It said: “Enbridge sends mixed messages on gas line.”

In fact, that’s not what the story says and, more importantly, it’s not what Enbridge is doing.

The Calgary-based pipeline company has always said it would not be part of any process to build an Alaska gas pipeline that does not have the backing of the North Slope gas owners, BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil. The three companies are also the North Slope’s primary oil producers — and the majority owners of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. They also want to own controlling interest in a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to Lower 48 markets.

In an Aug. 1 conference with analysts, Enbridge CEO Pat Daniel said the process under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act “won’t work effectively” unless it has the support of BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil. He said Enbridge officials “continue to advise the governor and the state that unless they can get a consortium of producers together to file under the AGIA we won’t be a participant in the process.”

Gary Park wrote the part of the story about Daniel’s comments, but when I asked Alaska Revenue Commissioner Pat Galvin for a statement on what Daniel had said, I included my name in the byline — and made the headline change that drew a protest from Enbridge.

In the article Galvin was quoted as saying that Daniel’s Aug. 1 message was “consistent” with Enbridge’s public message throughout the AGIA process, but he found the timing of Daniel’s statements “curious” because he and other members of Gov. Sarah Palin’s gas team were in Juneau with the governor that day (Aug. 2) to “participate in a meeting requested by Enbridge. … We have been told by representatives of Enbridge that they want to express their excitement for the project.”

A more appropriate headline would have been, “Daniel still says no producers, no Enbridge” with a subhead of, “Pipeline company’s officials meet with Palin administration in Juneau, Revenue commissioner finds timing of CEO’s remarks ‘curious’ ”

—Kay Cashman