Rigzone.com.   2010 will be a momentous year for Alaska’s decades-long dream of a natural gas pipeline. Both the TransCanada-Exxon project and the BP-Conoco project known as Denali are on track to hold open seasons this year.   *      The Hub.  NEB to hear final arguments on Mackenzie Valley Project.  *  Yesterday, Denali’s President Bud Fackrell (NGP photo) announced his team’s Open Season schedule.    *   Yesterday’s FERC Open Season Anchorage workshop agenda and link.  (Our earlier alert.)     *    Wall Street Journal.  An Alaska Superior Court judge has ruled that the state improperly canceled Exxon Mobil Corp.’s (XOM) lease rights to develop Point Thomson gas fields on the North Slope.  Judge Sharon Gleason said the Department of Natural Resources commissioner did not follow proper procedures in hearings on the ExxonMobil case, resulting in a "denial of due process" to the company, according to court documents. The decision was released Monday.

Canadian Press by Jim Macdonald.  Wiebo Ludwig was arrested in the interest of public safety, RCMP said Sunday, even though B.C.’s Crown prosecutor decided there wasn’t enough evidence against him to proceed with charges in connection with a series of pipeline bombings.

Personal.  Yesterday afternoon we returned from Cairo to JFK, took a cab to the Marriott here at Newark and at 7:30 a.m. will board an Alaska Airlines flight home.  The most memorable aspect of the journey was the awareness of the vulnerability of civilizations coming from first hand study.  It is a lesson no great civilization ever fully mastered.  We’ll be departing for Anchorage in a few hours and I will attempt over the next week to leave a longer record here of the Middle East oddessy, including photos and observations.  (Photo left: Billy Harbour, 1-5-09, Nubian Village, Upper Egypt on Nile.)  -dh

Photo: Dave Harbour’s Camel, Nubian Village, 1-5-10

 

 

Our Nubian Village Arabic Teacher, Upper Egypt, 1-5-10.