Alaska's source for oil and gas news
Alaska's source for oil and gas news
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A disagreement continues between the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and BP, operator of the Prudhoe Bay oil field, over the inclusion of gas marketing information in the field’s plan of development. BP filed its most recent plan on Sept. 1 and DNR had given the company until Nov. 1 to correct what the state agency characterizes as a deficiency in the plan. BP has declined to provide the marketing information, arguing that a disclosure of this type would breach business confidentiality agreements and violate anti-trust laws. At a S...
Cook Inlet Energy LLC is taking the lead on a new effort at the West Eagle prospect. The local subsidiary of Tennessee-based independent Glacier Oil and Gas Corp. wants to begin drilling at the onshore prospect in the southern Kenai Peninsula as soon as October, according to documents recently presented in bankruptcy court by Aurora Gas LLC. In late August, Aurora asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Alaska for permission to sell its Oil Discharge Prevention and Contingency Plan, or “C-plan,” for the West Eagle project to Coo...
First it was the Mackenzie Gas Project, now the shutters are being erected around the Central Mackenzie Valley as Canada’s North retreats even deeper into hibernation, ending for the foreseeable future the once-limitless hopes of developing trillions of cubic feet of natural gas and billions of barrels of oil. The latest blow is word from Imperial Oil that it is looking for a buyer of its Norman Wells oil operations, the most northerly commercial oil venture in Canada, which are only four years away from celebrating a century of production. How...
Two Alaska Native village corporations have installed the latest in Japanese manufactured micro-combined heating and power or CHP units in commercial buildings and have seen 50 percent reductions in electricity costs, officials with both corporations say. Matthew McDaniel, CEO at Yak-Tatk Kwaan, said the village corporation at Yakutat, southeast of Anchorage on the Gulf of Alaska, purchased and installed units powered by propane and sized at 5 kilowatts and 10 kilowatts for two small commercial buildings the corporation owns in the community....
Alaska Gov. Bill Walker will be in Singapore and Korea in late September pitching potential buyers of Alaska liquefied natural gas and hoping to find investors in a state-led gas pipeline and LNG project. Walker will attend the CWC 8th World LNG and Gas Series: Asia Pacific Summit in Singapore. While in Asia the governor will also participate in the Korea Ministry of Foreign Affair’s State Government Key Personnel Invitation Program, which invites select U.S. governors to Korea for one-on-one meetings with government officials and private s...
Since it was established by the Canadian government 57 years ago, the National Energy Board has built an unparalleled reputation for integrity and seldom-questioned decision making - until the last few months, that is. Now it’s in a position also without parallel, having to explain blunders that further fuel campaigns by activist organizations bent on disrupting and discrediting work of the federal regulator. The agency handles about 750 applications a year involving inter-provincial and international energy proposals, dealing efficiently w...
While she may not be on the Senate Resources Committee, Senate Finance Co-Chair Anna MacKinnon had a front-row seat for the recent join Resources committee hearings, sitting next to Resources Co-Chair Cathy Giessel. MacKinnon serves as vice-chair of the Legislative Budget & Audit Committee, which hires oil and gas consultants for the Legislature. MacKinnon, an Eagle River Republican, shared her thoughts with Petroleum News on the status of the state’s prospects for marketing North Slope natural gas. Petroleum News: You’re pretty fresh off bac...
The judge in a chapter 11 bankruptcy case involving Cook Inlet gas producer Aurora Gas has turned down a request by a company creditor to reverse the court’s approval of a payment of $87,000 by Aurora Gas to Furie Operating Alaska. The payment was for gas that Furie had supplied from its Kitchen Lights gas field to Aurora Gas to enable Aurora Gas to meet its gas supply obligations to Tesoro Alaska, operator of an oil refinery at Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula. A Sept. 9 court hearing to gather testimony over the disputed payment revealed some o...
The International Energy Agency has published the first edition of a new annual report overviewing worldwide investment in energy. Called “World Energy Investment 2016” and characterized by the IEA as “a first ever detailed analysis across the global energy system,” the report presents data for 2015. In that year investment in the energy sector totaled $1.8 trillion, a drop from $2.0 trillion in 2014, the report says. This drop in investment mainly resulted from a sharp fall in upstream oil and gas investment. China retook top position from th...
In a brief hearing Sept. 13 representatives of Cook Inlet Energy summarized the company’s objections to a large fine levied by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for regulatory violations in drilling and production at the Sword well. The commission had issued a notice of proposed enforcement action in December 2014 for issues at the Sword well, drilled in 2013. The action was based on what AOGCC described as “numerous regulatory violations” related to the well’s safety valve system during drilling and after production began,...
A report submitted to the state Department of Natural Resources on status of Alaska’s refining industry is chock-full of information on the economics of refining in the state, the economic contribution of the state’s three operating refineries make and problems the industry faces. The report, “The State of Alaska’s Refining Industry,” was compiled by Econ One Research Inc., a consulting firm, and submitted last December, but was little publicized. The Senate Finance Committee of the state Legislature requested the report in 2014. It is on the...
A South Korean icebreaker exploring in the East Siberian Sea has discovered a subsea gas hydrate deposit, according to a report in the Korea Herald. Apparently the 7,487-ton icebreaker has been exploring the region since late August. Methane hydrate is a naturally occurring ice-like material that concentrates methane in a lattice of water molecules within a specific range of relatively low temperatures and high pressures. In certain situations methane hydrate deposits could become a prolific source of natural gas for use as a fuel, if viable...
According to a report in the Peninsula Clarion, on Sept. 12 Gov. Bill Walker signed into law House Bill 100, a bill that grants credits against corporate income tax for an in-state facility that manufactures ammonia or urea from natural gas produced from state oil and gas leases. The state Legislature passed the bill in April. The bill clearly targets the potential re-opening of Agrium Inc.’s mothballed fertilizer plant at Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula - the tax provisions in the bill would presumably render the re-opening more viable. With g...
Cook Inlet Energy LLC terminated the Otter unit earlier this year. After claiming disappointing results from recent drilling, the subsidiary of Tennessee-based independent Glacier Oil & Gas Corp. voluntarily terminated the west side Cook Inlet unit and surrendered the leases in March 2016, according to recent state documents. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources formed the unit in October 2013, after Cook Inlet Energy agreed to work commitments backstopped by a $1.2 million bond. The initial plan of exploration for the unit required Cook...
Mark Wiggin is to become the new deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, DNR announced on Sept. 14. “Mark is well equipped to step into this critical DNR role. His knowledge of upstream oil and gas issues, his experience in project development, and his work on resource economics and policy will add valuable expertise to DNR,” said DNR Commissioner Andy Mack when announcing Wiggin’s appointment. DNR says that, to take up his new position, Wiggin will leave his current job as engineering and development manager for B...
BP’s spending, revenues paid to the state of Alaska and employee-count in the state are down, mainly a consequence of low oil prices, the company said in an annual state-by-state economic activity report issued Sept. 12. The company’s employees in Alaska are down to 1,750 compared with about 2,000 in 2014, some of this due to the oil price reduction and some due to BP’s sale of North Slope producing assets to Hilcorp Energy, BP spokeswoman Dawn Patience said. When Hilcorp took over operations at the Milne Point, Endicott and Northstar field...
The Standing Rock Sioux’s effort to block a four-state oil pipeline got a lifeline when the federal government temporarily stopped the project, a move some say likely may forever change the way all energy infrastructure projects are reviewed in the future. Just minutes after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg denied the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s attempt to halt the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline that skirts the reservation in southern North Dakota, three federal agencies appealed to the pipeline company to “voluntarily pause...
Through its Alaska subsidiary Accumulate Energy, Australian independent 88 Energy Ltd. has changed the design of the well it will drill this coming winter from a lateral to a vertical completion with multi-stage stimulation. Its goal is still to farm-out the 272,000-acre Icewine project south of Prudhoe Bay on the central North Slope. Icewine No. 2, designed to further evaluate the HRZ/HUE source rocks, will be spud in first quarter 2017 from the Franklin Bluffs pad, which has year-round Haul Road access and is the same pad that was used for Ic...
Business and labor groups launched a campaign Sept. 12 to include Arctic waters in the next federal five-year offshore oil leasing plan. The 20 groups, mostly based in Alaska, want the Obama administration to retain a Beaufort Sea lease sale in 2020 and a Chukchi Sea lease sale in 2022 within the five-year plan, which covers 2017-22. A decision by the Interior Department is expected before the end of the year. Organized as the Arctic Coalition, the groups purchased a full-page ad in the Washington Post and plan a broadcast and social media camp...
The number of rigs drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. increased by 11 the week ending Sept. 9 to 508. A year ago, 848 rigs were active. Depressed energy prices have sharply curtailed oil and gas exploration. Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. said 414 rigs targeted oil, up seven, and 92 natural gas, up four. Two were listed as miscellaneous. Among major oil- and gas-producing states, Louisiana gained eight rigs, Texas was up four, Utah and West Virginia each increased by two and Ohio by one. Oklahoma declined by four...
The International Energy Agency says global oil demand growth is slowing by more than previously thought, largely because of a more pronounced economic slowdown during the third quarter of the year. In its September oil market report, the organization said Sept. 13 it anticipates global demand growth to rise by 1.3 million barrels a day in 2016 - 100,000 below the previous forecast. The IEA anticipates a further slowdown next year, down to 1.2 million barrels a day “as underlying macroeconomic conditions remain uncertain.” The Paris-based org...
International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. has taken another step along the road to engineering the ideal mine for its Livengood gold project located some 70 road miles northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. In 2013, the company published a feasibility study outlining a 100,000-metric-tons-per-day operation that would average 577,600 ounces of gold annually, or 8.1 million oz. over an estimated 14-year mine life. The project, however, was estimated to cost about US$2.8 billion to develop and would not break even until gold prices approached US$1,500 per oz....
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. Sept. 13 provided an update on work programs at the Palmer project in Southeast Alaska, including the start of constructing a road to access the property’s Glacier Creek deposit. “A road to the mineral resource at Palmer is a major advancement for the project. It improves our ability to conduct ongoing exploration, environmental and geotechnical work, reduces dependency on helicopters, and enhances the safety of our employees,” said Constantine President and CEO Garfield MacVeigh. “It also highlights the exc...
Redstar Gold Corp. Sept. 12 reported the closing of a C$4.1 million private placement that involved the issuance of 41 million shares at C10 cents each. Eric Sprott acquired 9.6 million of these shares and, together with shares already held, now holds roughly 11.6 percent of Redstar’s issued and outstanding common shares. The proceeds from the financing will be used for drilling and other exploration at Redstar’s Unga gold project in Southwest Alaska. -Shane Lasley...
Freegold Ventures Ltd. Sept. 8 provided results from the first hole of a 2016 drill program at the company’s Shorty Creek copper-gold project in Interior Alaska. Drilling commenced on Hill 1835, where drilling in 2015 cut 91.4 meters averaging 0.14 grams per metric tons gold, 7.02 g/t silver and 0.55 percent copper, or 0.71 percent copper-equivalent from a depth of 279 meters in hole SC 15-03. Collared about 125 meters southwest of SC 15-03, and in the center of a distinct magnetic high at Hill 1835, hole SC 16-01 cut 434.5 meters averaging 0...
