Notes from the road: the best pizza in North America?  More here….

THE END OF AN ERA?  According to CBC News, "MGM Energy Corp. has surrendered its exploration licences in the Mackenzie Delta region of the Northwest Territories, saying without the Mackenzie Pipeline, it can’t get its natural gas and oil to markets."

 

At yesterday’s Oil Mary Ann Pease, MAP, LNG, ANGDA, Resources Energy, Photo by Dave Harbourand Gas Summit, Alaska Energy Consultant Mary Ann Pease (NGP Photo) said that the timeline of first deliveries of LNG from Alaska, PRIOR TO 2020, is critical.  "Worldwide competing projects are coming on line and are a direct threat to the Alaska LNG Project."  Speaking for Resources Energy, LLC., Pease said that Resources Energy initiated contact with the Department of Energy in September, 2011, with and with the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority (ANGDA) in December of 2011, after which ANGDA and Resources Energy signed a Memorandum of Understanding.  (We note that Alaska’s legislature and governor this year merged ANGDA with AGDC, the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation.)  In 2012, Resources Energy says it initiatied coordination with Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources, has since completed initial feasibility work and is in the process of finalizing its consortium arrangements.  

Critics note that, well intended as it may be, the company is not a producer of gas, does not own gas transmission or LNG infrastructure, and has not proved it has financing.  

In our experience  oil and gas transportation corsortia are typically not organized by agents but by principles: entities with deep pockets that actually finance projects with equity and their own borrowing capacity; who own the resource; and/or, who are ready to guarantee purchase of the resource.  

We caution readers that, as in all great commercial endeavors, it is easy to comment from the sidelines and more difficult to weave together the complex fabric of a project involving many different public and private stakeholders.

In the final analysis, successful projects are — and should be — adjudicated by the marketplace.    -dh

(See Pease’s attached PowerPoint presentation for more details.) 

ALERT: We urge Alaska readers to attend a so called federal ‘listening session’ in Anchorage today BETWEEN 11 A.M. AND 2 P.M. (i.e. in an email alert we regret referring to ‘tonight’) or Barrow tomorrow.  (We note that the Feds are not planning to listen to voices in Interior or Southeast Alaska.  Also, we cannot guarantee that just because they ‘listen’, they will ‘hear’.)  However, we encourage our good readers to comment on the importance of energy production to the future of Alaska and the country.  While the legal value of a ‘listening session’ is dubious, having only environmental activists testify would enable the Washington visitors to say, "We went to Alaska and all we heard was opposition to…."  Here are the details.  -dh

Calgary Herald by Amanda Stephenson.  During a panel Gaetan Caron, NEB, National Energy Board, Pipeline Safety, Enbridge, TransCanada, Kinder, Alliance, Spectra, Photo by Dave Harbourpresentation at a first-of-its-kind forum hosted by the National Energy Board, the executives of Kinder Morgan Canada, Spectra Energy, TransCanada Pipelines, Alliance Pipelines, and Enbridge Inc. spoke repeatedly about their companies’ commitment to safety and the need to restore public confidence after a series of high-profile spills that have put pipelines in the spotlight.  …  The decision to host two full days of discussions and keynote speakers, all on the topic of pipeline safety, stems from the federal regulator’s desire to get more information to a concerned public, said NEB chair and CEO Gaetan Caron (NGP Photo). While the NEB announced last month it was strengthening the rules for federally regulated pipelines to do more to address safety, Caron said the public is still asking questions.  “I believe Canadians want more and better information about what their watchdog is doing,” Caron said. “They’re asking what is being done to keep pipelines safe, to keep people safe around pipelines, and what is being done to protect the environment.”

The Best Pizza in North America!

by

Dave Harbour

I used to think the best pizza in the world was served by the Bill Hutchinson, VPN Certified Pizzaiuolo, Pizaros Pizza Napoletana, Photo by Dave Harbour, Todd Harbour, Billy Harbour, Ben Harbour, Gloria Hutchinson, William Hutchinson, Houston, best pizzaMoose’s Tooth and Bear Paw restaurants in Anchorage.

 This is after sampling one of the world’s favorite foods from Inuvik to Calgary, Toronto, Chicago, New York, Cuenca, Rome and Florence.  

But this week in Houston, I had the ultimate, pizza aesthetic experience while sitting in Bill and Gloria Hutchinson’s strip mall venue.  Enjoy this link and the good eating that awaits our Houston readers! 

Meanwhile, for Alaska readers, Moose’s Tooth, Bear Paw and Brewhouse remain world class!  -dh