Alaska's source for oil and gas news
Alaska's source for oil and gas news
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During a March 31 meeting of the House Energy Committee officials from Anchorage based Chugach Electric Association told legislators that the utility has identified four Southcentral Alaska sites for the potential development of hydroelectric power stations. The sites are at Canyon Creek on the Kenai Peninsula, north of Cooper Landing; Godwin Creek near the Fourth of July area of Seward; Caribou Creek, north of the Glenn Highway to the east of the Matanuska Glacier; and Boulder Creek, north of...
On March 31 House Bill 164, a bill relating to the use of solar panels or other renewable energy sources on private property, was reviewed by the House Energy Committee and passed to the House Finance Committee. For some time homeowners have been installing solar panels on their houses and thus obtaining benefits from reducing their need for utility supplied electricity. In addition, utility customers can obtain cash credits for excess solar energy that they can deliver into the electricity...
On March 25 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld the National Marine Fisheries Service’s designation of broad areas of the Beaufort, Chukchi and Bering Seas as critical habitat for ringed and bearded seals. Given concerns about the potential impact of the designation on offshore activities such as oil and gas exploration and development, in 2023 the State of Alaska had challenged the designation in District Court. The Center for Biological Diversity joined the lawsuit, in support of the designation. NMFS evaluated the o...
This year's winter maximum Arctic sea ice extent has statistically tied with last year's maximum as the lowest maximum on record, the National Snow and Ice Data Center has reported. On March 15 the ice extent reached its maximum area of 5.52 million square miles. Last year's maximum was 5.53 million square miles. "This record low maximum gives a head start to the spring and summer melt season," said Walt Meier, NSIDC senior research scientist. "One or two low years don't necessarily mean much...
On March 16, two days before the recent National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska oil and gas sale, the federal District Court in Alaska issued a preliminary injunction temporarily staying the cancellation of a right of way in the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area. Nuiqsut Trilateral Inc. had filed a lawsuit challenging the Department of the Interior’s recent cancellation of the right of way, which allows the nearby Native village of Nuiqsut to, in effect, regulate oil and gas exploration and development activities across a wide area around Teshekpuk Lake i...
During a March 18 presentation to the House Resources Committee Elena Sudduth, general manager of Interior Gas Utility, the utility that supplies natural gas to residents and businesses in the Fairbanks and North Pole regions, talked about the status of IGU’s operations. The utility now obtains all of its gas for its expanding customer base as liquified natural gas from the North Slope. The utility holds the LNG in storage facilities in Fairbanks and North Pole. Gas from the LNG storage tanks is distributed to customers through a network of p...
The State of Alaska, Enstar Natural Gas Co. and Chugach Electric Association have filed responses to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska’s request for information on potential liquefied natural gas importing arrangements to bolster gas supplies for utilities in Southcentral Alaska. Hilcorp Alaska anticipates the phasing out of firm gas supply contracts, starting as soon as 2028, in response to declining production from Cook Inlet basin gas and oil fields. Glenfarne Alaska is planning to build a gas pipeline from the North Slope to S...
In a March 11 public meeting of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, Rob Bryngelson from Cook Inlet LNG LLC talked about his company’s plan to enable the importing of liquefied natural gas to Southcentral Alaska using a Floating Storage and Regasification Unit, or FSRU. The FSRU would be moored adjacent to the existing Osprey platform off the West Foreland area on the west side of the Cook Inlet. The platform sits well outside any existing shipping lanes, Bryngelson told the commission. Natural gas delivered from the FSRU to the platform c...
On March 6 the three environmental organizations that had filed a complaint in the federal District Court in Alaska, claiming that the Bureau of Land Management’s approval of ConocoPhillips’ current plan for exploration in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska was illegal, have asked the court to dismiss the case. No explanation was provided for the dismissal request. ConocoPhillips has been moving ahead with its exploration program that involves the drilling of four exploration wells, together with three-dimensional seismic surveying over an...
Editor’s note: This story first appeared in the March 12, 2006, issue of Petroleum News. On the weekend of March 11, 2006, Enstar Natural Gas Co. plans to tie its new pipeline crossing of the east channel of the Susitna River into its pipeline that carries natural gas from the west side of the Cook Inlet to the Matanuska-Susitna Valley and Anchorage, Dan Dieckgraeff, Enstar’s manager of finance and rates, said at a Regulatory Commission of Alaska public hearing on March 9. Rapid erosion of the east channel of the river has forced Enstar to rep...
The director of Alaska's Division of Oil and Gas has published a preliminary written determination regarding the availability of state land in the Yukon Flats region for state licensing of exploration for oil and gas. The determination covers a rectangular region of land extending across the central area of the Yukon Flats region. (See map in the online issue PDF) "The land within the Yukon Flats determination area has unknown oil and gas potential and there is limited access to existing oil and gas infrastructure in much of the region," the...
Two recently filed lawsuits are challenging the Bureau of Land Management- s plans to hold oil and gas lease sales in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. One of the lawsuits, filed on Feb. 16 in the federal District Court for Alaska, challenges the validity of the latest NPR-A Integrated Activity Plan, the plan that determines key parameters under which the lease sales would be held. The other case, filed in the District Court for the District of Columbia on Feb. 17, challenges the legal validity of the upcoming NPR-A lease sale and particul...
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is proposing regulation updates that will reduce the cost of financial assurance for companies involved in offshore oil and gas production on the federal outer continental shelf. Companies are required to hold assurance that will cover the cost of remediating offshore sites when offshore facilities including platforms and pipelines are decommissioned. The Department of the Interior says that the proposed changes will roll back requirements from a 2024 rule that in total required companies to set aside...
On Feb. 26 the Alaska Energy Authority released its Statewide Railbelt Energy Vision, a planning document that overviews planned and potential major Alaska Railbelt energy initiatives in a long-range strategic framework. The concept is to provide a unified framework that describes major Railbelt energy initiatives. The document can serve as a long-term planning framework that builds on work already being conducted by AEA and the Railbelt electricity utilities, incorporating forecasts of future electricity loads, looking ahead 25 years, AEA...
On Jan. 28 Nuiqsut Trilateral Inc. filed a lawsuit in the federal District Court for the District of Columbia, challenging the Dec. 19 cancellation by the Department of the Interior of a right of way in the Teshekpuk Lake special area of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Interior, under the Biden administration, had issued the right of way in December 2024. The right of way enabled the Nuiqsut community to, in effect, regulate oil and gas exploration and development activities in the right of way during the development of ConocoPhillips'...
During a Feb. 11 Legislative Lunch and Learn session Ed Jenkin, chief executive officer of the Railbelt Reliability Council, talked to state lawmakers about the RRC approach to the regional planning of the Railbelt high voltage electrical system. The system consists of the electricity transmission network and associated power generation facilities along the Railbelt, stretching from the southern Kenai Peninsula north through the Anchorage region and up to Fairbanks in the Interior. The purpose of the planning is to ensure adequate and reliable...
On Feb. 4 the Regulatory Commission of Alaska opened a docket to gather information about plans for implementing liquefied natural gas import terminals at Nikiski on the coast of the Kenai Peninsula. The LNG will be used by gas and electricity utilities to supplement gas supplies from Cook Inlet oil and gas fields, as Cook Inlet gas production declines. The purpose of the docket is to assemble the information that the RCA will need for determining future RCA actions regarding costs incurred by the utilities from LNG importing. Harvest Midstream...
On Feb. 9 the plaintiffs in an Alaska District Court case in which 15 states had challenged the legality of plans to hold oil and gas lease sales in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge asked the court to terminate the case. On Dec. 17 of last year Judge Sharon Gleason had ordered the plaintiffs to file an amended complaint or, alternatively, to file a motion to dismiss their existing complaint. The plaintiffs chose to close the case by dismissing their complaint. The case was one of four cases challenging the legality of...
During a Jan. 27 meeting of the House Energy Committee officials from Harvest Midstream, Enstar Natural Gas Co. and the Regulatory Commission of Alaska talked about plans for importing liquefied natural gas to Southcentral Alaska in response to pending shortages of adequate gas supplies from gas and oil fields in the Cook Inlet basin. There are three projects for the establishment of LNG import facilities around Cook Inlet. Harvest has been moving ahead with a project to convert the existing LNG export facility at Nikiski on the western shore...
On Jan. 23 officials from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources talked to the House Resources Committee about the status of oil and gas development and production in Alaska. (See chart in the online issue PDF) John Crowther, DNR commissioner designee, commented on the significant activity that is happening on the North Slope, including exploration projects being conducted in various areas, field development activities and, for the first time in many years, new oilfields that are about to come online. There is also significant activity...
On Jan. 22 Glenfarne Alaska LNG LLC announced new agreements that the company has made with companies that Glenfarne wants to engage for the construction of a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to Southcentral Alaska. Glenfarne plans a two-phase project. The first phase would involve construction of 739-mile, 42-inch diameter pipeline from the North Slope to Southcentral and the second phase would involve the construction of a North Slope gas conditioning plant and an LNG export terminal at Nikiski on the Cook Inlet, together with a pipe...
In a Jan. 16 court filing the State of Alaska challenged a lawsuit in the federal District Court in Alaska that claims that President Trump's Jan. 20, 2025, executive order opening large areas of the federal outer continental shelf to oil and gas development, including areas of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, was illegal. A group of environmental organizations have claimed that the order violated both the U.S. constitution and federal statutes. The state now argues that the case should be dismissed because 'the plaintiffs have not alleged...
Anchorage based Enstar Natural Gas Co. plans to develop a new natural gas storage facility in the City of Kenai on the Kenai Peninsula using a depleted gas reservoir in the Kenai Loop gas field. The gas utility has filed a petition with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, asking the commission to find the development to be prudent and consistent with Enstar's role as a regulated gas utility. Enstar does not want to risk proceeding with the development without first ensuring that the RCA agrees with the prudence of the project. Enstar told the...
On Jan. 9 Trans-Foreland Pipeline Co. filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for approval of modifications to the company's liquefied natural gas terminal at Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula. The modifications are required to enable the terminal to import liquefied natural gas, to augment gas supplies for gas and electricity utilities in Southcentral Alaska. The utilities are facing pending shortfalls in gas supplies from gas and oil fields in the Cook Inlet basin. During the heyday of Cook Inlet gas production, the te...
Several environmental organizations and the Gwich'in Steering Committee have asked the federal District Court in Alaska to re-activate three lawsuits challenging the legality of holding oil and gas lease sales for the 1.56-million-acre Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Filed in 2020 The court cases were originally filed in 2020 to challenge the legality of the ANWR lease sale that was held in January 2021 under the first Trump administration. However, following significant policy changes regarding oil and gas exploration in...
