Gas group awards four contracts
Curtis Thayer, spokesman for the North American Natural Gas Pipeline Group, said today that six of 10 requests for proposals for gas pipeline-related feasibility studies have been awarded to several U.S. and Canadian firms.
Four land services contracts, which deal with land ownership issues, were awarded to American Reclamation Group LLC, Anchorage; Scott Land & Lease, Calgary; Progress Land Services, Edmonton; and Wilbanks Resources Corp., Denver.
The scope of their work includes field surveys that will begin this summer.
The U.S. environmental services contract was awarded to Anchorage-based URS Corp.; the Canadian environmental contract was given to AMEC Earth and Environmental Corp. of Calgary.
Thayer said that these two contracts serve as a foundation for permitting and filing of applications with U.S. and Canadian regulatory agencies.
The URS team will have 100 employees involved in the contract. AMEC expects to have 80 team members involved in its contract.
Thayer said that all the RFPs are geared toward developing an economic project.
The RFPs that have not been awarded include the conceptual engineering and design contracts. They involve a gas pipeline from North Slope to Alberta; a gas pipeline from Alberta to Lower 48 market; a gas treatment plant for the North Slope; and a natural gas liquids plant somewhere along the gas pipeline route.
BP term price holds steady
BP's April Alaska North Slope term price held steady at $24.75 a barrel, the same as the term price for March.
The March-April term price is up 0.94 percent from the February price of $24.52 a barrel, but down 11.8 percent from the April 2000 term price of $28.06 a barrel.
The year-to-date average term price is $24.45 a barrel, down 7.75 percent from the comparable 2000 year-to-date average of $26.51 a barrel.
The term price peaked at $32.71 a barrel last December; the 12-month low was $23.79 a barrel for January.
March North Slope temperature down, production up
Alaska North Slope oil production averaged 1,045,069 barrels per day in March, up 3 percent from a February average of 1,014,679 bpd, as average temperatures dropped to -13.8 degrees F for the month—the first time this year that a month's average temperature has been colder than the four-year average.
Alpine averaged 80,543 bpd in March up 9.93 percent from an average of 73,269 bpd in February. The Lisburne Production Center was up 4.03 percent, averaging 84,488 bpd for March compared to 81,212 bpd in February. Prudhoe Bay production averaged 566,433 bpd, a 3.61 percent increase from a February average of 546,712 bpd. Milne Point averaged 54,688 bpd for March, up 3.05 percent from 53,068 bpd for February. Kuparuk River averaged 225,131 bpd, up 1.05 percent from an average of 222,797 bpd in February. Endicott averaged 33,786 bpd in March, down 10.19 percent from a February average of 37,621 bpd. The Alaska Department of Revenue said Endicott production dropped to below 30,000 bpd March 16-22 due to turbine inspection.
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