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Rumors report ANWR to be designated national monument
by The Associated Press
Alaska's two Republican senators are complaining about new rumors that the Clinton administration plans to declare the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a national monument, making it off-limits to oil development.
The latest rumor was published June 15 in the trade publication "Oil Daily."
Senator Frank Murkowski waved the newsletter in front of Energy Undersecretary Ernest Monzi at a Senate Energy Committee hearing on legislation intended to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil. Monzi responded that he didn't know anything about it.
Senator Ted Stevens said he also has been hearing rumors that Clinton intends to withdraw more Alaska lands under the 1906 Antiquities Act.
The lawmakers believe the administration is constrained by the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. That says any future land withdrawals of more than 5,000 acres in Alaska must be approved by Congress.
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has said at earlier hearings that he knows of no effort by the White House to declare the refuge a national monument. Babbitt has said he wouldn't support it.
But those designations usually do not go through the usual departmental processes. Instead, they're decided at the White House among the president's closest political advisers and usually without much if any consultation.
According to the Oil Daily, the White House has prepared the paperwork for designating the coastal plain of ANWR as a monument, and it's just a matter of political timing. The publication quoted unidentified sources in its story.
Petredat withdraws complaints against Halliburton, Spartek Halliburton Co., Spartek Systems and Petroleum Reservoir Data Inc., also known as Petredat, said recently that they have settled a patent infringement suit brought by Petredat concerning downhole well data recorders.
The parties have settled the suit on terms that grant Petredat, Halliburton and Spartek the right to continue to make, use, sell, lease and offer for sale the recorders.
Petredat filed the complaint in the International Trade Commission on Jan. 3, alleging that Halliburton and Spartek infringed its U.S. Patent No. 5,130,705 by importing downhole well data recorders manufactured by Spartek.
Halliburton and Spartek denied any wrong doing.
Alyeska looks at moving pipeline operations control center Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. is reviewing the efficiency of its operations and is studying the possibility of moving its pipeline control center from Valdez to Anchorage or Fairbanks.
"That particular issue will be evaluated as part of a system-wide analysis of the way we're doing business," Alyeska spokesman Tim Woolston told the Valdez Vanguard.
Any decision to move the center would be at least two years down the road, Woolston said. "That is one of literally hundreds of things that could be looked at," he said. "No decision has been made, but that would be evaluated as part of this overall plan."
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