Copyright (c) 2010 Petroleum News, All rights reserved. http://www.petroleumnews.com Petroleum News, providing coverage of Alaska and Canada. en-us Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:47 PST http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/450883312.shtml Doyon Ltd., the Fairbanks-based Native regional corporation for Interior Alaska, has announced that it is sponsoring some new oil and gas exploration in the Yukon Flats this winter. CGGVeritas will gather about 95 miles of 2-D seismic data in a 200,000-acre block of Native land owned by Doyon and by... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/620600687.shtml A top ExxonMobil executive drew a generally upbeat picture of coming global oil and gas demand and also broke a bit of Alaska news in a Jan. 22 speech in Anchorage. 'There is consensus that oil and natural gas will continue to supply the majority of the world's energy needs in the foreseeable future... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/413738530.shtml The regulatory pieces are falling into place as fast as clouds are gathering over Enbridge's plans for a Northern Gateway pipeline to carry oil sands production to a tanker port at Kitimat on the British Columbia coast. Canada's National Energy Board and Environment Minister Jim Prentice named the t... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/350947244.shtml RUBBING SHOULDERS WITH AL GORE ... In Greening of Oil's quest to determine how 'clean' coal can get, our reporter's trail took her to Saskatchewan, Canada, to Dr. Malcolm Wilson, an expert in carbon capture and storage technology at the University of Regina. Quoted in Rose Ragsdale's article, 'N.D. p... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/316468601.shtml In a deal involving cash and trades, Statoil is acquiring a 25 percent working interest in 50 ConocoPhillips Chukchi Sea leases while ConocoPhillips will acquire some of Statoil's acreage in the Gulf of Mexico. The companies said Jan. 25 that the Chukchi Sea leases are those acquired by ConocoPhill... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/574277397.shtml Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. spud the Sak River No. 1A well in the Gwydyr Bay region of the Alaska North Slope on Jan. 26, the company said in a statement. The well is a sidetrack of Sak River No. 1, a suspended well drilled in early 2007. Now that BRPC has re-entered the well, it plans to remove... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/938350531.shtml If the Alberta government and its new energy minister Ron Liepert have even the faintest notion - and there is disagreement over the point - of entrenching the slowdown of the last 18 months and curbing the pace of oil sands development they may already be too late. What has happened in just the la... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/138681859.shtml In a world increasingly polarized into aging oil industry fans and young industry skeptics, public opinion, as much as the availability of domestic energy sources, is shaping the future of U.S. oil and gas supplies, David Lawrence, Shell's executive vice president for exploration and commercial, tol... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/42664829.shtml Not everyone wants a seat on the oil sands bandwagon at a time when eight key players are again cranking up their spending plans. Just when it seemed a corner had been turned for the northern Alberta resource, after 18 months in the doldrums, Royal Dutch Shell has put an indefinite hold on its once-... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/450943064.shtml Launching two major pipeline projects well ahead of schedule sounds like a clear-cut victory for Enbridge, but that isn't the view of oil sands producer Suncor Energy. Richard Bird, chief financial officer of Canada's second-largest pipeline company, said Jan. 20 that both the Canadian and United St... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/912589609.shtml Armed with a $10 million federal grant, and pushed by a mandate to use synthetic fuels, the U.S. Air Force is studying the merits of a large-scale coal-to-liquids plant in the Interior. A half-dozen researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks are among those helping the Air Force vet the pro... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/980211587.shtml In the 'oh yes it is, oh no it isn't' debate about the effectiveness of Alaska's ACES oil production tax, it's easy to lose sight of the many factors that go into an oil company's decision over whether to invest new capital in, say North Slope exploration, vs. drilling some wells elsewhere in the wo... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/335036797.shtml Safety, efficiency and cost reduction are goals BP is pursuing for its Alaska business. But the company thinks the State of Alaska also needs to meet a goal if industry is to remain strong in the state - reduction of both its ACES tax rate and the progressivity built into the tax. That was the mess... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/51275261.shtml ConocoPhillips said in November that it planned no exploration drilling in Alaska this year. Larry Archibald, the company's senior vice president for exploration and business development, told the Alaska Support Industry Alliance Meet Alaska conference Jan. 22 that, 'it's the first time since '65 t... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/301947805.shtml After several unsuccessful appeals, shippers on the 800-mile trans-Alaska oil pipeline have succeeded in getting the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reconsider an earlier decision that accepted a 30-year useful life estimate for the line. In an order issued Dec. 10, the federal regulator of... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/767112338.shtml Following his speech at the Alaska Support Industry Alliance's annual Meet Alaska conference Jan. 22 in Anchorage, ExxonMobil Production Co. President Rich Kruger sat down with Petroleum News to field a few questions. Topics included ExxonMobil's global investment and management style; its Arctic ex... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/968746706.shtml Fresh off a significant setback in its tilt with ExxonMobil for control of the rich Point Thomson oil and gas field, lawyers for the state are now asking for a break in the action while they seek an Alaska Supreme Court review of a key aspect of the case. The move seemed to dampen recent public stat... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/333358041.shtml While the company remains somewhat guarded about revealing results until it gleans more information from well logs, rumors of a significant hydrocarbon discovery from a well Savant Alaska completed drilling at Badami this winter appear to have a basis in truth. When asked for results of the B1-38 w... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/988917356.shtml The 'entire' Mackenzie Gas Project could hang on whether the National Energy Board upholds a recommendation to protect a bird sanctuary on the Mackenzie Delta, Imperial Oil and its partners have told the federal regulator. Responding to 176 recommendations contained in the findings of a Joint Review... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/83022465.shtml SPEAK SLOWLY, IN SIMPLE SENTENCES ... On Feb. 1 Financial Times' Energy Source blog ran an article that said natural gas producers 'have started to contemplate exporting natural gas from the US.' The only actual producer quote supporting the reporter's claim came from a 174-word statement by Russ Ford... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/578740065.shtml On Jan. 25 ConocoPhillips and Statoil USA announced a deal that gave Statoil a 25 percent working interest in 50 Conoco leases in the Chukchi Sea off the northern coast of Alaska. Three days later a Petroleum News source said Conoco was close to a deal with a second partner on the same acreage. Alth... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/657964293.shtml On Jan. 27 the Regulatory Commission of Alaska issued an order declining to rule that the commission would not regulate a natural gas storage facility that Cook Inlet Natural Gas Storage LLC plans to build in the Cannery Loop gas field on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. The order leaves open the question... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/198326776.shtml The State of Alaska is seeking permission from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene in a lawsuit by environmental groups challenging the U.S. Department of the Interior's approval of an exploration plan for the Chukchi Sea. 'OCS exploration and development will increase jobs and revenue fo... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/157312546.shtml Canadian Natural Resources, an emerging oil sands force, and privately held North West Upgrading have teamed up in one of the most surprising of all turnarounds in Alberta oil sands projects over recent weeks. They have submitted a 50-50 joint-venture proposal to the Alberta government to build and... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/13285978.shtml Lower oil prices in the first three quarters of 2009 meant lower year-end earnings in Alaska for ConocoPhillips, despite increased profits in the fourth quarter of the year. ConocoPhillips earned $1.54 billion in Alaska last year, a 33 percent decline from the $2.31 billion the company earned in the... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/163921503.shtml If not exactly the shot heard around the world, it certainly whistled across the bow of Canada's oil sands sector as federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice admonished the industry to clean up its act. Reportedly unhappy that oil sands proponents failed to make their case at the Copenhagen climate... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/132684281.shtml Uncertainty may not be what businesses like, but uncertainty is probably what businesses will find, as various interest groups spar over competing agendas and opinions in the permitting of Alaska projects. And at the Seminar Group's Permitting Strategies in Alaska seminar, held in Anchorage on Jan.... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/113297574.shtml After slowing the pace of its Nikaitchuq project on Alaska's North Slope last year, Eni Petroleum is on schedule for first production from the field's onshore pad this December, and for first production from the field's offshore drilling pad south of Spy Island in December of 2011. Crude oil from N... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/675751015.shtml Alaska Pipeline Project partners TransCanada and ExxonMobil have filed their open season plan with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, making public an estimated cost range for building an Alaska natural gas pipeline as well as projected tariff rates for shipping on the project, which will go... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/928352919.shtml The tugboat Pathfinder, badly damaged when it ran aground Dec. 23 in Prince William Sound, has left the Port of Valdez, a spokesman for Crowley Maritime Corp. told Petroleum News. A second Crowley tug, the Pt. Thompson, took the 136-foot Pathfinder under tow and departed Valdez on the morning of Jan... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/940378820.shtml One of the hotter issues facing Alaska lawmakers in the current legislative session is the question of whether and how to unify the operation of the six electricity utilities that supply power to consumers along the Alaska Railbelt, a question with major implications for future Railbelt power costs... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/316473023.shtml Alaska North Slope crude oil production averaged 671,989 barrels per day in January, down 2.44 percent from a December average of 688,765 bpd. The average drop in barrels was 16,776, and the largest per-barrel decline was at the North Slope's largest field, Prudhoe Bay, which averaged 338,915 bpd i... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/169470028.shtml Both oil industry investment and employment have increased since the introduction of both the state's ACES production tax and the preceding form of the tax, known as PPT, said Alaska Commissioner of Revenue Patrick Galvin in a letter dated Jan. 21 to several members of the Alaska Legislature. Galvin... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/656958576.shtml The State of Alaska has gotten FERC approval for a fix to an issue which could have caused it problems in shipping royalty gas on a proposed natural gas pipeline and could also, the state feared, have caused uncertainty in open seasons for the line. Over objections by Denali and ConocoPhillips, the... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/69188061.shtml The forecasts span a broad range, but they all point in the same positive direction - toward a stronger year in the Canadian upstream than has originally been forecast. Bolstered by strengthening natural gas prices and a growing belief that the Alberta government is on the verge of rolling back its... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/77797769.shtml A long-shot bet by one of Alberta's biggest oil sands producers to lock up natural gas resources in the farthest reaches of the Canadian Arctic has turned sour. In 2006, Canadian Oil Sands Trust emerged victorious from a heated bidding contest for Canada Southern Petroleum, whose primary asset was a... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/96760395.shtml ExxonMobil said Jan. 29 that former U.S. astronaut Bernard Harris gave students and teachers in San Diego a first-hand experience with the wonders of science, technology, engineering and mathematics when 'The Dream Tour, presented by ExxonMobil' made its first stop of 2010 at Abraham Lincoln High Sc... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/955751695.shtml Crowley Maritime Corp. said Jan. 28 that it has restructured it petroleum distribution and contract services group, consolidating all Alaska operations under Craig Tornga, vice president. Tornga will remain in Anchorage, will continue reporting to Rocky Smith, senior vice president and general manag... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/788155309.shtml American Air Liquide, a division of Air Liquide said Jan. 27 that it has been helping coordinate emergency assistance efforts with the United Nations Center for International Disaster to provide much-needed medical oxygen to the rescue teams in Haiti. Due to Air Liquide's footprint and logistics str... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/34822881.shtml Larry Persily, the Obama administration's pick to become the new federal coordinator for Alaska natural gas transportation projects, said during a Feb. 2 confirmation hearing he'd do whatever he could to enhance chances for a gas pipeline. 'I pledge to devote my energy, my knowledge and ingenuity to... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/885671593.shtml Answering criticism of its steep tariff increase, Cook Inlet Pipe Line Co. is telling Alaska regulators its crude oil pipeline is 'very small' and is operated on 'nearly a non-profit basis.' Those arguments might not wash with oil shippers, who have lodged objections to the carrier's 259 percent rat... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/132168203.shtml The Alaska Department of Revenue has announced that it is adopting new regulations for the state's ACES oil production tax, under title 15 chapter 55 of the Alaska administrative code. The new regulations, part of a series associated with the introduction of ACES, apply specifically to the standards...