Copyright (c) 2013 Petroleum News, All rights reserved. http://www.petroleumnews.com Petroleum News, providing coverage of Alaska and Northwest Canada en-us Fri, 17 May 2013 03:58 PST http://www.petroleumnewsbakken.com/pntruncate/710553532.shtml Larson Electronics Magnalight said May 6 that it has made public the EPL-RPS-1MLED rechargeable, explosion proof LED light cart. Designed to run 11 hours on a single charge, the Class 1 and Class 2 Division 1 LED light can illuminate a work area of more than 5000 feet. The EPL-RPS-1MLED rechargeabl... http://www.petroleumnewsbakken.com/pntruncate/81242346.shtml LT Environmental Inc., a Colorado environmental engineering firm, said May 9 that it has hit another home run announcing the addition of two compressed natural gas vehicles to service its Rocky Mountain Region clients. The Rocky Mountain Region, including Colorado, has been one of the largest natura... http://www.petroleumnewsbakken.com/pntruncate/80898420.shtml Subscribers: To view the "IPs for ND Bakken wells" chart, please click on the above PDF link.... http://www.petroleumnewsbakken.com/pntruncate/158036079.shtml Subscribers: To view the "North Dakota permit activity" chart, please click on the above PDF link.... http://www.petroleumnewsbakken.com/pntruncate/23082115.shtml Subscribers: To view the "North Dakota Pipeline Authority" chart, please click on the above PDF link.... http://www.petroleumnewsbakken.com/pntruncate/408288622.shtml Abbreviations and parameters With a few exceptions, the Montana weekly oil activity report includes horizontal well activity in the Bakken petroleum system in the eastern/northeastern part of the state within the Williston Basin. It also includes what is referred to as the South Alberta Bakken fairway... http://www.petroleumnewsbakken.com/pntruncate/548520425.shtml U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., singled out North Dakota Director of Mineral Services Lynn Helms for praise at an oversight hearing conducted by House Natural Resources Committee May 8 on the U.S. Department of Interior's proposed hydraulic fracturing rule. In his closing remarks, Cramer cited rece... http://www.petroleumnewsbakken.com/pntruncate/152521775.shtml The North Dakota Petroleum Council has awarded five 2013 Al Golden Scholarships (up from the three $1,000 prizes handed out a year ago) to North Dakota students pursuing a post-secondary education in geology, engineering, processing plant technology, science, technical skills or other careers relate... http://www.petroleumnewsbakken.com/pntruncate/388457792.shtml Independent Breitling Oil and Gas Corp. has appointed veteran petroleum geologist Joseph Simo as vice president of exploration, effective immediately. Simo, who most recently worked as chief geologist for Breitling, has more than 38 years of experience in the oil and natural gas sector as a profess... http://www.petroleumnewsbakken.com/pntruncate/675152780.shtml Hess Corp. took steps recently to win over a majority of shareholders in a proxy fight for control of its board of directors. On May 10, the company said it would separate the roles of chairman and chief executive officer of the company, putting forth former General Electric Co. Vice Chairman John K... http://www.petroleumnewsbakken.com/pntruncate/916058344.shtml Canadian intermediate oil producer Crescent Point Energy is moving 31,500 barrels per day, or one-third of its production, by rail in Saskatchewan and Alberta and expects to raise that level, Chief Executive Officer Scott Saxberg told a conference call with analysts. He said the shipments through t... http://www.petroleumnewsbakken.com/pntruncate/549462032.shtml For North Dakota Petroleum Council President Ron Ness and his staff, legislative sessions can be long and difficult, not only because of all of the oil and gas-related legislation he and his staff track throughout the session, but also because of all the committee hearings in which the council testi... http://www.petroleumnewsbakken.com/pntruncate/545383646.shtml In a May 1 presentation at the 21st annual Williston Basin Petroleum Conference held in Regina, Saskatchewan, Trisha Curtis, a senior research analyst with the Energy Policy Research Foundation Inc., or EPRINC, gave an assessment of current and projected U.S. and Canadian crude oil production. Curti... http://www.petroleumnewsbakken.com/pntruncate/234969448.shtml Of the 93,731 acres offered in the Montana/Dakota Bureau of Land Management's May 7 oil and gas lease auction a mere 7,349, or approximately 8 percent, received bids. Of the remaining 86,382 acres that did not receive bids, 73,699 were in McCone County, Mont., and had been previously let by BLM in a... http://www.petroleumnewsbakken.com/pntruncate/907826345.shtml Despite worse weather in March than February, including three major winter storms, daily oil and gas production in North Dakota actually increased in March, although the increase in oil output was minimal. However, given the adverse weather in March, Lynn Helms, director of the North Dakota Industri... http://www.petroleumnewsbakken.com/pntruncate/799547628.shtml Not only did Continental Resources set another production record in the first quarter of 2013, the company also ran successful tests of the second and third benches of the Three Forks, saw positive results from downspacing in 320-acre and 160-acre pilot spacing units, continued to reduce drilling co... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/314209576.shtml ASRC said May 9 that it is pleased that the longstanding need for the cleanup of the U.S. Navy exploration program on the North Slope continues to be addressed by the Bureau of Land Management. The 2013 Strategic Plan carries a significant work commitment by the BLM. All North Slope residents will... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/923564097.shtml Crowley Maritime Corp.'s petroleum services group said May 8 that it is entering the liquefied natural gas market by acquiring Carib Energy LLC. Florida-based Carib Energy, founded in 2011, was the first company to receive a small scale, 25-year, LNG export license from the U.S. Department of Energy... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/96020466.shtml Stoel Rives LLP, a leading U.S. business law firm, said May 6 that it is pleased to announce that Tina Grovier has joined its Anchorage office as a partner in the firm's Environment, Land Use and Natural Resources group. Grovier is recognized as a leading oil, gas and mining lawyer. During her 15-ye... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/621378267.shtml The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council has authorized nearly half a million dollars for cleanup of Japanese tsunami debris littering Alaska beaches. The money will go to a nonprofit organization, Gulf of Alaska Keeper, which has worked for several years to gather and dispose of ocean trash washi... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/188812144.shtml The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plans to establish three small meteorological stations on Alaska's North Slope as part of a climate change study. Each station will have a 10-foot aluminum tripod tower, said a May 7 public notice from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. So... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/755836292.shtml The State of Alaska's Cook Inlet areawide lease sale on May 8 saw companies picking up a series of leases along a fairway of land in the southern Kenai Peninsula, north of Kachemak Bay, near the eastern margin of the Cook Inlet basin. Hilcorp Alaska in particular filled in a lease position that it h... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/134021613.shtml The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, or BSEE, has issued a final version of its safety culture policy statement for offshore oil and gas operations. Rather than being a prescriptive set of mandatory requirements for businesses working in the offshore, the policy presents guidance in t... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/203653521.shtml The U.S. Coast Guard and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, or BSEE, have signed an agreement to better coordinate their efforts in the oversight of safety and environmental protection on the U.S. outer continental shelf. The two agencies have overlapping responsibilities in that th... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/1713965.shtml As part of its investigation into the grounding of the Kulluk, Shell's Arctic floating drilling platform, the U.S. Coast Guard is holding a hearing in Anchorage to gather testimony on the circumstances surrounding the incident. The Kulluk ran aground in the northern Gulf of Alaska during a severe st... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/939698380.shtml The battle over bringing liquefied natural gas to the Interior is getting testy. In an increasingly complicated tangle arising from longstanding disputes, three entities competing to market North Slope natural gas supplies are accusing one another of being unfit to serve a less-densely populated sec... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/388146544.shtml The Alaska Department of Natural Resources approved a number of lease deals in April. On the North Slope, Repsol EandP USA Inc. transferred a 7.5 percent working interest and 6.25 percent royalty interest in 31 North Slope leases to partner GMT Exploration Co. William D. Armstrong requested transferr... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/987260470.shtml In what appears to be a signal of increased national awareness of the United States' role as an Arctic nation, President Obama has issued a 'National Strategy for the Arctic Region,' a document that sets out high-level priorities for federal government actions relating to the Arctic. 'The Arctic is... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/162491006.shtml The Northstar oil field, operating from an artificial island in Alaska's Beaufort Sea, produced a total of 3 million barrels of oil in 2012, with an average daily oil production rate of 8,300 barrels, according to the Northstar unit 10th plan of development, submitted by field operator BP to the Ala... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/75779170.shtml Over the past five years China's national oil companies have invested C$33.3 billion in Canada's oil and gas sector, about 43 percent of the C$77 billion in deals initiated by foreign buyers. But of the 15 countries involved in MandA transactions there has been one notable absentee - India. The subco... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/37900497.shtml As part of a multiyear program of gas hydrate research in the Gulf of Mexico being conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the U.S. Department of Energy, USGS researchers have obtained high-resolution seismic data and images of some known gas hydrate deposi... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/3686992.shtml Although federal budget cuts, known as sequestration, are impacting U.S. Coast Guard operations, the Coast Guard will continue its program of Arctic activities during this year's open water season, Lt. Veronica Colbath, Coast Guard external affairs officer, told Petroleum News May 9. The Coast Guar... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/55976654.shtml As part of a major program of 3-D seismic surveying in Alaska's Cook Inlet basin, Apache Alaska plans to conduct an on-land survey in about 142,000 acres of the northern Kenai Peninsula, where the company wants to seek exploration drilling targets in subsurface land owned by Cook Inlet Region Inc.,... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/86663865.shtml Canada's Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, in waging an almost single-handed crusade, threatened a trans-Atlantic trade scrap over the oil sands before partially backing down. Taking a break from his seemingly endless visits to the United States to argue for Keystone XL, he tackled the European... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/426403294.shtml The U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration is projecting the Brent crude oil spot price to average $104 per barrel for the second half of the year and $101 per barrel in 2014. After increasing to $119 per barrel in early February, the Brent crude oil spot price fell to $97 per... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/833413739.shtml Fueled by growth in situ development and production in its oil sands, Alberta posted a 14 percent rise in conventional oil production in 2012, a 10 percent jump in crude bitumen output and a 9.5 percent increase in reserves, intensifying the challenge of how to get those volumes to market. In its an... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/709163155.shtml House Speaker Mike Chenault's resource development priority is about to become a reality. The in-state natural gas pipeline project he and colleague Rep. Mike Hawker pushed is ready for Gov. Sean Parnell's signature. House Bill 4 empowers the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. to move forward to an op... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/85816200.shtml Northwest Territories Industry Minister David Ramsay has reopened debate on an option for moving crude from the Alberta oil sands and Canadian Arctic to Asia by way of Valdez. He told Petroleum News he is in the early stages of exploring the possibility with political leaders in Alberta, the Yukon a... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/998092517.shtml ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. expects to bring its Shark Tooth satellite online by late 2015. The most prolific oil company in the state is permitting a 24-well drilling pad, an access road and a gravel mine, as well as associated pipelines and power lines, at the oil field in the southwest corner of i... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/306998346.shtml British Columbia Premier Christy Clark and the voters of her province sent the political pollsters and pundits packing May 14 in an election that has variously been called the Comeback of the Century or the Turnaround of the Ages. Those who might have anticipated waking up on May 15 to a new governm... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/470077381.shtml ExxonMobil is starting to make real strides on its Point Thomson development on Alaska's North Slope. Construction contractors for the oil giant have been focusing on two project components - the central pad, and the pipeline that will tie the field into the existing North Slope oil transportation n... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/46014834.shtml Buccaneer Energy Ltd. has spud a well at Cosmopolitan, but the company is asking the state for additional time to complete its larger work program at the Cook Inlet prospect. A local subsidiary of the Australian independent started drilling the Cosmopolitan No. 1 exploration well off the coast of An...