Chevron subsidiary Union Oil Company of California has dropped 11 leases in the state's North Slope Foothills sale area, the remnant of acreage acquired in 2001 and 2002, Petroleum News said. Neither Chevron nor Unocal has remaining acreage in the Foothills sale area. The dropped acreage isn't in the White Hills prospect where Chevron has been doing exploration drilling in the last two winters.

An Alaska Division of Oil and Gas report also showed Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska withdrawing from a 20 percent position in four Beaufort Sea leases it acquired in 2007.

Supply-chain services company changes name

Advanced Supply Chain International is the new name of Alaska Supply Chain Integrators. The company provides supply-chain management services through its Anchorage headquarters and Denver and Houston offices. The new name completes a year-long rebranding that included a redesigned Web site, new logo and new corporate slogan, the company said. The rebranding reflects the company's growing international clientele, said Scott Hawkins, president and chief operating officer. "We're a cutting-edge technology company, and needed a brand and Web presence demonstrating such," Hawkins said.

WH Pacific opens Kotzebue engineering office

WH Pacific Inc. has opened an engineering office in Kotzebue to better serve clients in Northwest Alaska, including the NANA and Bering Straits regions and the Chukchi portion of the North Slope Borough. WH Pacific provides architecture, building engineering, transportation, water resources, surveying and energy services. The company has hired Matt Bergan of Kotzebue as operations manager at the new office. He is a mechanical engineer with more than 12 years' experience with both Kotzebue Electric Association and most recently with Maniilaq Association. WH Pacific is owned by NANA Development Corp. Its headquarters is in Anchorage and it has four other Alaska offices as well as 14 locations in the Lower 48, the company said.

Telephone co-op plans undersea fiber cable

The Cordova Telephone Cooperative plans to lay a 90-mile undersea fiber cable from Cordova to Valdez, the company said. This will improve Cordova's broadband links to the rest of the world, the cooperative said. Satellite signals can be unreliable at times and are expensive and cumbersome to use, whereas fiber transport is reliable and is not affected by such things as weather and sunspots, Cordova Telephone said. The cable should be installed within 18 months.

"We still have a few hurdles to overcome, but we have reached a point the public is asking many questions and deserves to know what the cooperative's future communications plans are," said David Allison, board president. "This is an exciting project for the Cordova Telephone Cooperative and the community as a whole; there is not a member of the community who will not benefit greatly from this new investment and technology."

Paul Kelly, chief executive and general manager, called the cable a multimillion-dollar project but said he didn't want to disclose the specific cost "until after the fact." Cordova Telephone has not finalized financing but all indications are that the project qualifies and will receive low-interest Rural Utility Service funding, he said. He said the company hopes that initial speeds on the cable will reach 10 megabytes.

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