Alaska Dispatch/YLE News. Oil giant Shell is planning to start charting the seas for oil drilling in the Arctic, and Finnish icebreakers are coming along on the test drillings, even as Greenpeace says oil drilling in the Arctic is dangerous in the extreme.
Yedlin: Alison Redford’s energy message has big impact – Calgary
Herald – As Royal Dutch Shell chief executive Peter Voser said in a speech in Houston, the world needs everything – tight oil, heavy oil, oilsands, natural gas and renewables. Diversity of supply, as IHS chairman Daniel Yergin (NGP Photo) has noted in his recent book, …
Alaska Dispatch by Alex DeMarban. The Alaska Oil and Gas 
Conservation Commission is partway through a study designed to better grasp the amount of natural gas stranded in scores of old North Slope wells. Natural gas production is booming in the Lower 48, but North Slope gas has not been tapped for commercial use because companies such as Exxon Mobil and BP have targeted more valuable oil and there’s no major pipeline to ship the gas. The project is underway because the North Slope’s natural gas potential has never been fully explored, and because the state intends to build a pipeline to market that gas, said Commissioner John Norman (NGP Photo).
Politico: Oil industry jumps gun on Keystone vote – The American Petroleum Institute jumped the gun Thursday in excitement over a Senate vote to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. “API supports the Senate approval of Amendment 1537 to authorize the building of the Keystone XL pipeline,” said a press release that landed in reporters’ inboxes at 4:50 p.m., about 30 minutes after the vote.
Politico:
Two years after spill, offshore industry, ‘back in business’ – For once, Jim Noe doesn’t have much to complain about. “Things are good. First time in a long time,” he told POLITICO at the CERAWeek conference this week. Noe, the executive director of the pro-drilling Shallow Water Energy Security Coalition, said the demand for shallow-water drilling is at its highest since the global financial crisis hit in 2008.
AP: Romney: Obama ‘in part’ to blame for gas prices – Seeking to tap into the public’s concern over rising gas costs, Mitt Romney on Thursday said President Barack Obama was “in part” to blame for higher prices at the pump. Romney, the front-runner in the Republican presidential field, said Obama has tried to shirk his responsibility for increases in the price of gas, which could threaten to upend some recent improvements in the nation’s economy.
AP: Natural gas prices drop sharply on bulging supply – Natural gas prices fell Thursday after spring-like weather blanketed much of the country, raising expectations that demand will remain weak. At the same time, supplies have stayed well above year-ago levels. The amount of natural gas in storage in the U.S. fell 80 billion cubic feet to 2.433 trillion cubic feet last week.
Senate Republicans vowed to try again to speed up approval of TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone XL oil pipeline after falling four votes short of rounding up enough Democratic support to expedite the project. The Democrat-led U.S. Senate yesterday narrowly rejected a Republican amendment to a transportation funding bill that would have fast-tracked the project. The measure, which received 56 votes in favor, failed because Senate rules require 60 votes to include the amendment.
Bloomberg Businessweek:
Ranchers Tell Keystone: Nut Under My Backyard – Oil has put bread on Eleanor Fairchild’s table in Wood County, Tex., for more than 50 years. Her late husband was a geologist who worked on exploration for different energy companies, and was part of a team that discovered oil in Yemen in the 1980s. That doesn’t mean she welcomed a TransCanada (TRP) worker who appeared on her doorstep in March 2009. The company wanted to run nearly a mile of its 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline across Fairchild’s 350-acre farm 90 miles east of Dallas, the representative explained, and was willing to pay her $43,000 for an easement on five acres.
CNN:
Republicans grill energy secretary over statements about gas prices – Energy Secretary Steven Chu insisted to lawmakers Thursday that the Obama administration wants gas prices lower. But at a hearing of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, he didn’t get much of a chance to explain, as Republican members continued to confront him with statements he and his boss, President Barack Obama, made prior to the 2008 election.
Tucson Citizen: Gas prices must come down, consumers say – Consumers fretting about soaring gasoline prices say President Obama and Congress must act to keep them from rising further, a Gallup Poll finds. An overwhelming number of consumers — 85% — say Obama and Congress should take “immediate” action to keep a lid on prices. After nearly four weeks of daily price increases, regular gasoline averages $3.76 a gallon nationwide. Industry analysts still expect a $4 top by Memorial Day, although prices could rise to $5 a gallon if escalating tensions in the Middle East disrupt crude oil shipments.
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