Copyright (c) 2010 Petroleum News, All rights reserved. http://www.petroleumnews.com Petroleum News, providing coverage of Alaska and Canada. en-us Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:31 PST http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/4201104.shtml A Japanese oil refiner is seeking permission to bring jet fuel by tanker into the Port of Anchorage, a move that could help cure what has been a costly problem for the air cargo industry. Cosmo Oil of USA Inc., a Torrance, Calif., affiliate of Tokyo-based Cosmo Oil Co. Ltd., on July 10 applied to th... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/403319085.shtml The jury is not quite done with its work, but the early verdict is a happy one all-round. It shapes up like a win-win for the Alberta government and the petroleum industry as the trickledown from the province's latest attempt to get its royalty changes sorted out starts to show up in corporate botto... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/489725074.shtml Dwindling oil production, tightening product deliverability and an aging infrastructure are normally the hallmarks of a mature oil and gas province. But Alaska's Cook Inlet basin, despite its collection of aging oil and gas fields, remains in many geologists' eyes relatively underexplored, especiall... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/508390215.shtml Faced with the pending expiry of some state leases southwest of Soldotna on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, Aurora Gas has filed paperwork with Alaska's Division of Oil and Gas to re-enter the Cohoe No. 1 well, to test for natural gas. The company is negotiating with the Alaska Department of Natural Resou... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/897076416.shtml The Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is studying whether Alaska would benefit economically and environmentally by using natural gas instead of crude oil products like diesel and gasoline to fuel the more than 7,500 vehicles owned by the state. The Division of Statewide Equipment Fl... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/523174460.shtml There is no need to ban drilling in Canadian coastal waters, given that current legislation and the regulatory regime is 'among the most stringent and innovative in the world,' the Canadian Senate's energy, environment and natural resources committee said Aug. 18. Wrapping up six weeks of public hea... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/71950043.shtml The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is asserting authority over wells drilled to depths greater than 500 feet in specified onshore areas of Cook Inlet. At issue here are wells drilled to explore coal, which are permitted by the Department of Natural Resources, not by AOGCC. Last fall the... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/549351020.shtml As Chugach Electric Association gets ready to build a roughly $300 million power plant, the cooperative wants to know it will be able to recoup its expenses on the project. The largest electric utility in Alaska is asking state regulators for a sign that some of the costs of its Southcentral Power P... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/434153005.shtml State regulators are consolidating eight cases on trans-Alaska oil pipeline shipping rates. In a bid to simplify what is becoming an increasingly complicated situation, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska agreed to fold a series of rate increases requested by the owners of the pipeline in 2009 into... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/981691745.shtml Talisman Energy has lost its patience with New York state lawmakers, telling them to copy Pennsylvania and impose higher regulatory fees to open the way for development of the state's portion of the Marcellus shale gas deposit. Otherwise, the Canadian-based independent is faced with a drilling morat... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/465866920.shtml It's one of those 'on the one hand on the other hand' debates. In the four years from 2006 to 2009, volumes of arsenic and lead produced and deposited in tailings ponds at Canada's oil sands rose by 26 percent. Quantities of some other substances rose even faster. But the unpleasant, often toxic byp... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/555296593.shtml Sen. Lisa Murkowski, in a speech to the World Trade Center Alaska on Aug. 17, blasted the federal government for what she characterized as overreach in applying legislation and regulations that limit Alaska's ability to develop its natural resources. Reflecting on the tragic passing of former Sen. T... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/522682447.shtml MEG Energy, having stumbled out of the starting gates as Canada's newest publicly traded oil sands company, is now in full stride. The startup has made what it somewhat immodestly claims to be the 'fastest, most efficient' beginning of any in-situ project. And, so far, no one is taking issue. MEG (w... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/759067161.shtml A federal agency that regulates offshore oil and gas drilling in Alaska has clarified its rules this summer after a government audit said some of its Alaska employees were blocked from information that would help them assess environmental impacts. The new directive was sent this summer to all 80 wor... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/115705959.shtml Cook Inlet Natural Gas Storage Alaska has applied to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for authorization for underground storage of natural gas in the Cannery Loop unit on the Kenai Peninsula. CINGSA, a joint venture of Semco Energy, the parent company of Southcentral gas utility Ensta... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/563178331.shtml Marcellus Shale drilling is still in its infancy in West Virginia, but the industry is already contributing millions of dollars to the state's economy. It may be awhile before the gas industry's economic impact rivals that of coal in West Virginia. Mike Shaver, clad in a hard hat and muddy boots, s... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/798439822.shtml The Obama administration announced Aug. 16 that it is requiring environmental reviews for all new deepwater oil drilling. The announcement came in response to a report by the White House Council on Environmental Quality, which found that decades-old data provided the basis for exempting BP's drillin... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/76278087.shtml The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission put out an industry guidance bulletin Aug. 9, reminding industry to report all use of blowout prevention equipment to prevent the flow of fluids from a well. The commission said the reporting requirement applies to drilling, completion and workover ope... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/42837842.shtml The Alaska Energy Authority board of directors has approved a $9 million power project fund loan to Haida Energy Inc. to help finance a new 5 megawatt hydroelectric project at Reynolds Creek on Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska. Haida Energy, a newly formed entity established by Haida Corp... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/212344425.shtml Global Diving and Salvage said Aug. 5 that it would like to welcome John Ferguson, business development manager, to its Offshore Support Division. Ferguson has more than 17 years of experience in the offshore and international oil and gas industry. He will be using his expertise to prepare for opening... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/936654155.shtml Crowley Maritime Corp. said Aug. 5 that its efforts to significantly reduce carbon emissions at the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach were recognized during the third annual San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan Air Quality luncheon. The Clean Air Award recognizes companies who make... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/51702171.shtml Nabors Industries Ltd. said Aug. 9 that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Superior Well Services Inc., whereby Nabors will acquire Superior. The agreement contemplates that Nabors will commence a tender offer for all outstanding shares of Superior common stock at $22.12 per sha... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/277526910.shtml The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has bounced the injunction against the U.S. Department of Interior outer continental shelf deepwater drilling moratorium back into Louisiana District Court. DOI originally imposed a deepwater OCS drilling moratorium as part of its response to the Gulf of... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/372041412.shtml The $20 billion victims' compensation fund established for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill may use revenue from BP's oil and gas drilling as collateral, according to details released Aug. 11 by the White House. The government watchdog group Public Citizen criticized the arrangement as a conflict of in... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/901659049.shtml ExxonMobil is moving forward with it plans for the Point Thomson project, applying for a right-of-way lease for construction of a pipeline to carry liquids production from the remote field on Alaska's eastern North Slope. PTE Pipeline LLC, a Houston-based affiliate of ExxonMobil Pipeline Co., submit... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/336388838.shtml Managers with Apache Corp. were in Anchorage the week of Aug. 22, and they were sounding pretty bullish about their new acreage in Southcentral Alaska's Cook Inlet basin. Apache's main interest is oil, although it's mindful of the ready local market for natural gas, said John Bedingfield, the co... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/256943001.shtml The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's upcoming integrated activity plan and associated environmental impact statement for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, or NPR-A, will improve the level of certainty for oil and gas leasing in the reserve, and the planning process will provide a transpar... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/934627729.shtml The off-again, on-again story of BP's troubled Badami oil field, the most easterly of the developed fields on Alaska's North Slope, continues with a planned field restart in September. For the past two years independent oil company Savant Alaska and Arctic Slope Regional Corp. have been partnering w... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/839410597.shtml Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has just wrapped up his fifth annual summer swing through the Arctic, 'vigorously defending' Canada's sovereignty claims in the region, pitching a new Arctic foreign policy statement and making a case for a commercially-viable, environmentally-sound development... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/86946863.shtml A newly proposed gas supply contract between Enstar Natural Gas and ConocoPhillips would give the utility a fifth and sixth line of defense when extreme cold causes natural gas consumption to peak in Southcentral Alaska, but still leaves Enstar without a guaranteed supply. Under the non-firm cont... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/191974883.shtml The hunt for commercial volumes of oil in offshore Greenland by Cairn Energy turned up natural gas in small quantities just as the Scottish-based explorer is negotiating the sale of its Indian subsidiary and Greenpeace is targeting Greenland oil and gas activities. Cairn said Aug. 24 it is encourage... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/950517330.shtml State regulators say they'll hold joint hearings with their federal counterparts to discuss shipping rates on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, but only if the hearings are held in Alaska. The Regulatory Commission of Alaska and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are separately considering wh... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/479522564.shtml The companies that own the liquefied natural gas terminal on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula want the federal government to extend their export license by two years, without any conditions on that extension. In an Aug. 17 letter to the U.S. Department of Energy, ConocoPhillips and Marathon challenged th... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/581726558.shtml Just a few years ago, oil and gas development on Alaska's southern Kenai Peninsula was a chicken and egg situation. Now it's poised to become a hatchery. When Armstrong Cook Inlet brings its North Fork oil and gas project into production early next year, it could be the push needed to bring seve... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/641410000.shtml Japan has joined South Korea and China in a multi-billion dollar Asian parade into Western Canada's unconventional gas and oil sands region. Industrial conglomerate Mitsubishi formed a joint-venture August 24 with Penn West Energy Trust for an initial outlay of C$850 million to pay for assets an... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/102694877.shtml The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation in partnership with the University of Alaska School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences is collecting environmental data from the Chukchi Sea along the near-shore from Point Hope to Wainwright, DEC said Aug. 19. The $2.15-million study, part of a U.S.... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/190196426.shtml On Aug. 23 Alaska Senate President Gary Stevens and House Speaker Mike Chenault announced the names of people appointed to serve on the Northern Waters Task Force. In March the Alaska Legislature passed a resolution mandating the formation of the task force, to assess and facilitate the creation of... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/346083372.shtml The Alaska Coastal Management Program is reviewing Linc Energy's proposal to drill a well this fall in the Point MacKenzie area of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. The Australian company wants to drill the LEA No. 1 well to look for natural gas on ADL 390588, just north of Point MacKenzie Road across... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/557836222.shtml The only deepwater well currently being drilled in Canadian waters is nearing completion in Newfoundland's Orphan Basin just ahead of what shapes up as a full-scale national debate on the future of offshore activity. Unlike the Great Barasway F-66 wildcat, its predecessor in the same program, the... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/53511451.shtml Construction Machinery Inc. held its annual customer appreciation barbecue on Aug. 19. The annual event, gives customers a chance to enjoy good food, this year provided by Sea Galley, and to preview equipment and speak with representatives from Volvo, Ingersoll Rand, Atlas Copco, Link-Belt, Skyjack,... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/412032826.shtml Crowley Maritime Corp said Aug. 19 that it is pleased to announce the promotion of Eric Evans and Tony Otero each to the role of vice president, finance and planning, supporting several different business groups within its holding company, Crowley Holdings Inc. 'Tony and Eric were promoted to their... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/635017200.shtml Heatherdale Resources Ltd., a subsidiary of Hunter Dickinson Inc., is living up to its pledge to aggressively explore the Niblack copper-gold-silver-zinc project on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. Some 18,000 meters of drilling completed by the junior over the past year traced nearly... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/608300236.shtml Japan is an important player in Alaska's mining industry. The island nation imports more than US$125 million in minerals from the Far North state annually and Tokyo-based businesses own the Pogo gold mine and are making significant investments in other mining projects across the state. To fur... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/71761509.shtml In the last month, several of Alaska's major metal mines reported strong operating numbers; one company released a preliminary economic assessment and three new mineral exploration companies acquired exploration interests in Alaska. While the functions of explorers and producers are quite differen... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/733236421.shtml As we approach the 2010 primary election (which will be history by the time this article is read), it is worth pondering how rapidly Alaskans, like the crewmates of the Ancient Mariner, are plunging toward oblivion in the midst of a sea of plenty. The warnings of those who opposed statehood are no... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/813234742.shtml THISTLE CREEK, Yukon Territory – The Bell Jet Ranger helicopter just landed, while the A-Star unloaded passengers before powering down its engines on the other side of the creek. A third, smaller copter whined as its rotors buffeted bystanders with gusts of dust and debris during takeoff. Meanwhi... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/718319986.shtml DAWSON, Yukon Territory – 'If we hold it, they will come,' reasoned Mike Burke, head of Mineral Services at the Yukon Geological Survey. True to his expectations, some 70 prospectors, geologists and junior companies flocked to a Front Street meeting hall here Aug. 11 for the first-ever 'Dawson Roc... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/120085119.shtml DAWSON, Yukon Territory – Hardrock mining explorers are capitalizing on unprecedented investor interest and going after paying gold, silver, copper-rich porphyry, lead-zinc and other metal deposits here with uncommon gusto this summer. A few years ago, a multimillion-dollar, single-season explo... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/56456853.shtml Having completed a preliminary economic assessment for the Livengood project in early August, International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. has shifted its focus toward bringing the multimillion-ounce gold property into production. 'Our operational team is making excellent progress in advancing the pr... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/94783923.shtml Constantine Metal Resources Ltd.'s 7,500-meter drill program continues to unravel the complex geology of Glacier Creek Prospect at the Palmer copper-zinc-gold-silver project in Southeast Alaska. The South Wall and RW zones at Glacier Creek has been the focus of Constantine's drilling since the ju... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/253628975.shtml While intrepid juniors are busy pursuing another season of uranium exploration in Nunavut, the Government of Nunavut, in partnership with the federal government through the Canada-Nunavut Geoscience Office are participating in a major collaboration between government, industry and academia in hop... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/889022782.shtml Before Alaska could build an 800-mile long oil pipeline, sending Prudhoe Bay crude to market, there was a debt that needed repaying: land owed to Alaska Natives. It was a century old obligation that would nearly cost freshman Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens his job. Instead, he turned the nation's... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/403695439.shtml Sen. Ted Stevens played a key role in the development of science facilities throughout Alaska, particularly in rural Alaska. He felt that solutions based on science could help solve many of the problems communities faced. He also understood that climate change was real, and happening quickly. I... http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/586188147.shtml I braved the dusty AlCan Highway in my 1961 Ford station wagon after graduating from Colorado State in 1965. Rooming for a week in Anchorage's Parsons Hotel, I waved at the Beetles one afternoon in the alley behind the Hilton. That - along with Alaska's other attractions - hooked me on the place. Th...