We’ve been laying low for several weeks due to shoulder replacement surgery and related issues…for which we thank readers’ patience. We’re slowly repairing, able to type a little and now focused on adding appropriate northern energy content into our searchable archives as before. -dh
BIG NEWS TODAY: Trump repeals Obama’s destructive, duplicative Ocean Policy E.O. See this letter from the National Ocean Policy Coalition below, column right. -dh
Today’s Latest Northern Energy News:
Oil, Gas & LNG Readers: Download the “six behaviors” below for important future reference:
China Industrial Policy Seeks to Steal ‘Crown Jewels’ of U.S. Tech. Free Beacon, By Bill Gertz “China’s economic aggression was defined by the White House as six behaviors: Theft, forced tech transfer, evasion of export controls, export restraints on raw materials, information-harvesting, and acquisitions.”
Gov. Walker: LNG, seafood, beer, baby food to balance China trade Must Read Alaska (blog). ALASKA HAS THE GOODS TO CLOSE THE GAP, HE SAYS. Could Gov. Bill Walker become the new China-U.S. trade negotiator for the Trump … (Note: see our commentary and the Governor’s release, right columns. -dh)
Alaska’s governor to issue plea to avert trade war. Infosurhoy The Alaska Gasline Development Corp. wants to build hundreds of miles of pipelines and associated infrastructure to process state gas into liquefied .
FNG Storage site tour WebCenter 11. The LNG storage tank sits just off Peger Road in South Fairbanks. … The project has come a long way since breaking ground in December, with the walls expected to be in … “So the tank is really the heart of the Interior Energy Plan.
Canada
Better prices, new pipelines expected to drive higher Canadian crude output Calgary Herald. CALGARY — The Canadian Energy Research Institute says a pipeline capacity gap that is impeding the movement of Western Canada’s crude to …
Varcoe: Biggest oilpatch deal of year gets bumpy reception from investors
It’s the biggest union in the oilpatch this year, but the merger of Baytex Energy Corp. and … capital due to pipeline constraints, a steeper heavy oil discount and feeble natural gas prices. … Chris Varcoe is a Calgary Herald columnist.
Your letters for Tuesday, June 19
Calgary Herald … I am a supporter of the need for pipelines and wish Canadians would wake up and get the pipelines built. … Wake up oil people — fix your existing infrastructure, quit gouging Canadians at the pump. … the 200 million cubic meters of water the Bow River carried through Calgary in 2013 …
LNG Worldwide
| • | Cheniere, Cheniere Energy Partners agree merger |
| • | GasLog Partners in Cheniere charter deal |
| • | PNG LNG selling single cargo |
| • | Petrobras’ oil and gas production flat in May |
| • | Japan’s LNG imports rise in May YoY |
| • | Ferus Smit launches Thun Tankers’ LNG-fueled vessel |
| • | Tellurian selling shares to fund Driftwood LNG pipeline |
| • | US LNG developer NextDecade adds more China marketing personnel |
| • | GTT nets gravity-based LNG projects pre-FEED studies |
| • | Chiyoda-Synergy JV wins Abadi LNG work for Inpex |
| • | South Korea’s DSME delivers LNG carrier with full re-liquefaction system |
Alaska/ChiCom Coordination: Our 3rd World Governor Enters Trade Dispute
.jpg)
Alaska Governor Bill Walker. Northern Gas Pipelines photo by Dave Harbour
Governor Bill Walker on Monday released the following statement about the recent announcement that the Chinese government plans to impose a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion worth of U.S. goods:
“Alaska has abundant resources, from natural gas and seafood to beer and baby food. These resources enable our state to dramatically reduce the trade deficit between the United States and China, if we can finalize agreements to increase exports of our products. Trade negotiations between leaders from both countries are ongoing. I am confident that we will, in the end, embrace the opportunity for mutual economic growth that we can achieve by working together. Next week, I will meet in Washington with leaders from both governments who have been at the table leading the efforts to avoid an unnecessary trade war. I will continue to work directly with both sides to make sure Alaska’s interests are protected.”
– Governor Bill Walker
AlaskaGov/ChinaGov LNG Project Not Free Enterprise, We Observe
In the center column, we see that Alaska’s governor continues to seek seating at the international trade dispute table as if his state were a world-class government (i.e. though its ‘sovereignty’ is local and its influence limited).
But U.S. and China diplomatic representatives have many more issues at play beneath that negotiating table, than trade issues.
Issues that will publicly or privately influence the US/China balance of payment, security and trade deficit issues do, or could, embrace such side issues as: China Sea Island sovereignty, Taiwan “one China” tension, Chinese investment in the U.S., Chinese trade secret aggression and Korean peninsula denuclearization.
Into this morass of international intrigue comes Alaska’s intrepid governor, seeking to convince parties that having Chinese Communist banks and energy companies invest in a socialized Alaska LNG project benefits America’s capitalist economic system.
Until this time, Walker has convinced the White House — probably with active or acquiescent support of Alaska’s Congressional delegation — that Walker’s government-owned, bureaucrat-led gas pipeline/LNG scheme deserves White House support. He suggests that the $40-60 billion, socialized project would improve that China-US balance of payment deficit and is probably angling for a Federal Loan Guarantee that would foolishly pledge to creditors the full faith and credit of United States taxpayers.
The Governor has sought constituent support by touting all the jobs to be produced, though this promise rests on actual creation of a currently infeasible LNG project and whatever other concessions he negotiates with major investors, like communist China.
Walker smoothly comforts citizens with the notion that China is Alaska’s major trading partner. But a critical thinker notes that current trade interactions are undertaken by the private sector. It is true that private companies are risking private money on Chinese trade. But negotiating 1-5 year private, commercial fishing, beer, baby food and mining trade deals on behalf of shareholders is a lot different than having temporarily elected and appointed politicians and bureaucrats trying to negotiate for –and then manage — a multi-billion energy project that includes close oversight and interference by other politicians and citizens alike — for decades to come.
There is much more to say about the countless traps and snares accompanying Alaska’s amateurish, communal ownership foray into the wilderness of free market, international trade negotiations and disputes. But, for today, we’ll just recognize that Alaska’s governor is headed to D.C. next week for that purpose, leaving at home the understandably less desirable issues of fiscal crisis, and a spendthrift, deficit-spending state government.
We will add two more items about which citizens should be aware even if politicians are not:
- Assuming that the temporarily elected Walker administration is 100 percent capable of owning and managing a multi-billion dollar LNG project, should citizens assume that the next administration(s) will be just as “competent”?
- Are Alaskan citizens 100 percent comfortable with having temporarily elected and appointed politicians and bureaucrats pledging their natural resources to a project dependent on the good faith of the Chinese communist government? Do Alaskan citizens even know that the United States heads up the whole United Nations command in South Korea which is still technically at war not only with North Korea but also with Communist China?
(Ref: our Washington Times Korea DMZ adventure)
The United States Survives President Obama’s Economy Killing Ocean Policy Executive Order Thanks To President Trump!
President Trump has just issued an Executive Order Regarding the Ocean Policy to Advance the Economic, Security, and Environmental Interests of the United States, which includes a revocation of the 2010 National Ocean Policy Executive Order issued by then-President Obama.
Jack Belcher. NGP Photo.
In response to today’s order, NOPC Managing Director Jack Belcher issued the following statement:
“Today’s action is a welcome development that embraces principles we all agree on, such as encouraging data and information sharing, interagency and inter-jurisdictional collaboration, and partnerships within and among the public and private sectors. At the same time, it removes a significant cloud of uncertainty that has been hovering over a wide range of commercial and recreational interests that represent a broad cross-section of the American economy, threatening domestic jobs, economic activity, and recreational opportunities through new and unauthorized bureaucracies, mandates to federal agencies, and actions that could needlessly prohibit, limit, or delay access to public lands.”
TODAY: House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop…
Representative Rob Bishop, courtesy Civil Service.
“Today’s announcement of President Trump repealing and replacing the bureaucratic, overreaching policy created under the previous administration puts our country’s ocean policy back on the right track. Over the past 10 years, the Committee has held dozens of hearings on heavy-handed Obama-era policies and the negative impacts they have caused on both the nation’s oceans and agricultural industries. Earlier this month, the Committee heard from Americans whose livelihoods depend on a healthy ocean economy and the prior administration’s ocean policy was one of their main challenges. President Trump’s action will help the health of our oceans and ensure local communities impacted by ocean policy have a seat at the table.”
Leave A Comment