Hex LLC and subsidiary Furie dominate Cook Inlet lease sale
Small independents did the bidding in Wednesday’s oil and gas lease sale that netted the Alaska Department of Natural Resources $451,594 from eight bids.
Energy
Alaska Native corporation deal with conservation nonprofit complicates planning for massive Pebble mine project
Nearly 90 percent of Pedro Bay Corp. shareholders voted last month to let the Conservation Fund buy easements on more than 44,000 acres and make the land off limits to future development - including a road crucial to the mining proposal.
Hilcorp is largest methane emitter in U.S. oil and gas industry, report shows, but its Alaska emissions are lower
The company said it has decreased emissions at Alaska fields where it operates.
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Biden administration suspends oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
The Interior Department will also conduct a “comprehensive” environmental analysis of the oil and gas program in the refuge, which Congress approved in 2017 at the urging of Alaska’s congressional delegation after decades of failed attempts.
Biden administration backs ConocoPhillips drilling project in National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska
The move, revealed in a federal court case, comes despite concerns from Alaska’s congressional delegation that President Biden would halt the Willow project.
UK explorer says it’s made a billion-barrel oil discovery along the Dalton Highway in Arctic Alaska
Industry sources who have followed the Great Bear-Pantheon work generally said the porosity and permeability of the rock formations — and the ability to easily get the oil out of them — will most likely determine the ultimate size and success of the project.
At least 2 ExxonMobil board members lose seats in shareholder fight over climate change
The development represents a setback for Exxon’s leadership and coincides with growing pressure on publicly traded companies to more urgently address an intensifying global crisis.
Homeland Security to issue first-ever cybersecurity regulations for pipelines after Colonial hack
The Department of Homeland Security is working to prevent a repeat of a major computer attack that crippled nearly half the East Coast’s fuel supply this month
New president of ConocoPhillips Alaska says he’s excited to return to frontier exploration after stint in Texas
Erec Isaacson first reported to work in Alaska in 2006 as the company’s exploration manager as it was entering the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in earnest.
Mishap highlights growing foreign-flagged oil tanker traffic in Alaska
An unladen oil tanker that’s part of a growing number of foreign-flagged vessels transporting Alaska crude reportedly dragged its anchor for nearly 4 miles in rough Gulf of Alaska seas while waiting for an escort to Valdez in mid-April.
Interior Department drops Trump proposal that critics say would have weakened Arctic offshore drilling rules
The department said existing regulations released in 2016 remain in effect and “are critical to ensuring adequate safety and environmental protections for this sensitive ecosystem and Alaska Native subsistence activities.”
Biden nominates environmental advocate to run Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management
Tracy Stone-Manning would direct the federal agency that has jurisdiction over one-third of the nation’s underground minerals, including huge reserves of oil, natural gas and coal.
Alaska gas line project left out of Biden administration’s massive infrastructure proposal
The $2 trillion-plus infrastructure plan makes no mention of pipelines and discussion about natural gas infrastructure is limited to $16 billion for plugging and abandoning orphaned oil and gas wells and mines.
Alaska oil industry still reeling from pandemic crash even as prices recover
Approximately 6,300 people were employed in the state’s oil and gas sector last month, which was in line with February but did not reverse a declining trend.
Interior secretary revokes Trump-era orders on energy, including one intended to boost drilling in NPR-A
Deb Haaland called the orders by her predecessors “inconsistent with the department’s commitment to protect public health; conserve land, water, and wildlife; and elevate science.”
Interior Department becomes battlefield in fight over response to climate change
The oil and gas industry is pushing back against the administration’s desire to reassess — and perhaps increase — royalty rates for drilling on federal lands, which have remained unchanged for a century.
Federal regulators order Hilcorp to replace 7-mile pipeline that leaked natural gas into Cook Inlet
The company has a year to replace the subsea pipe, installed in 1965, the agency said in a 12-page order.
Small Australian oil explorer hits potential pay zones in Nanushuk on Alaska’s North Slope
The leaders of 88 Energy Ltd. believe they have continued a trend that is driving two of the largest Slope prospects in decades.
Hilcorp shuts down two offshore platforms in Cook Inlet after natural gas leaks from fuel line
The leak was cut off on Saturday, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said. The incident occurred in the same 8-inch fuel line as Hilcorp’s natural gas leak in the Inlet in 2017.
Judge throws roadblock into Hilcorp oil exploration in Cook Inlet, citing potential impacts to beluga whales
Conservation groups sued the federal government in 2019 to stop the project.