Alaska gas line project schedule calls for work to begin in early 2020
The state-led project’s latest timeline still shows first liquefied gas production by fall 2024.
Energy
Alaska nets $28.1 million in North Slope and Beaufort Sea oil lease sales
The state received bids on 133 tracts covering 223,680 onshore North Slope acres, and eight Beaufort Sea tracts totaling 20,270 acres garnered bids.
Marathon Petroleum acquires outstanding shares of Andeavor
Andeavor, formerly Tesoro, operates refineries in California, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Alaska.
Interior Alaska officials agree to explore Siemens plan to bring in natural gas
At the heart of the plan is a pair of Siemens’ modular “LNGo” gas liquefaction units that can produce up to 30,000 gallons of LNG per day.
Coal mine to sell lots to Healy subdivision residents
Usibelli purchased the property from the Alaska Railroad Corp. in a deal authorized by the Alaska Legislature this year.
Ketchikan utility continues relying on diesel generators
Recent rainfall in Ketchikan has helped fill reservoirs, but it has not been enough for the utility to switch on the area’s largest hydroelectric source, officials said.
ConocoPhillips nets quarterly $1.8 billion, with $427 million from Alaska
The $1.8 billion profit was on the back of $10.1 billion in revenue, the largest such figures ConocoPhillips has realized in several years.
Hilcorp replaces oil tankers with pipeline for Cook Inlet crude
Crude oil from Cook Inlet’s west side will now reach Marathon’s refinery in Nikiski by pipeline instead of tanker after Hilcorp completed the $90-million project.
Plan for first oil production in federal Arctic waters off Alaska gets OK
The Hilcorp wells would be on an artificial island in the Beaufort Sea.
Mat-Su and Kenai boroughs continue sparring over proposed LNG plant
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is scheduled to release its draft environmental impact statement for the Alaska project in February 2019, with the final EIS planned for release November 2019.
BP’s Rocky Mountain high is threatened by a $39 million vote on drilling in Colorado
If passed, the proposition would cut the state’s oil output by more than half and, perhaps, act as a potential blueprint for blocking development elsewhere.
Regulators air draft plan to increase bonding amounts for new oil wells
The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission held a public hearing Tuesday in Anchorage on the draft regulations, which would demand up to a $30 million bond be posted to drill and operate the largest oil fields.
Gas line agency navigates trade friction, touts Alaska-hire agreements
The Alaska Gasline Development Corp. estimates the project would generate upward of 18,000 new jobs in the state over about six years of construction.
US looks to circumvent environmental opposition by using military sites, including Adak, for coal and gas exports
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke specified only one site that could serve as an export hub for natural gas: the former Adak Naval Air Facility in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, which he suggested could receive fuel by barge from the North Slope.
Northwest Alaska mine seeks to build 10-mile road to prospective expansion sites
Red Dog Mine operator Teck wants to transport heavy equipment to the prospective sites to do more intensive underground drilling.
Trump urges OPEC to drive down oil prices, issuing new threat
Crude oil prices have been rising over the past year as a result of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' strategy to tighten supply.
Siemens-led consortium plans to test old Houston well for gas to be sent to Fairbanks
A pair of Alaska Native organizations and a multinational industrial technology firm believe they can find the missing link to the natural gas supply chain for Fairbanks in an old exploration well near Houston.
Alaska gas line agency chooses route for Kenai Spur Highway around proposed LNG plant
Alaska Gasline Development Corp. selected the shortest and least expensive route to bend the Kenai Spur Highway around the roughly 800-acre LNG plant site in Nikiski.
More methane: Interior eases rules curbing leaks from oil and gas leases on federal land
Rollback of 2016 rule marks the fourth reversal of an Obama-era climate rule in less than two months.
ExxonMobil gas line agreement with state includes easing of Point Thomson terms
The letter removes the requirement for ExxonMobil, as the Point Thomson operator, to move forward with a plan to expand production at the field in a way that doesn’t jive with feeding the LNG project.