U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, (NGP Photo), yesterday introduced bipartisan legislation to expand American offshore energy production with a revised five-year leasing plan and provide revenue sharing to  all participating coastal states. The Offshore Petroleum Expansion Now Act of 2012 – OPEN Act – is co-sponsored by Sens. Jim Webb, Mark Warner; Mary Landrieu; John Hoeven; Jim Inhofe, R-Okla Fairbanks News Miner by Matt Buxton.  House Speaker Mike Chenault is expected to focus on the state’s energy woes and discuss the direction of the House Majority’s efforts after his favored measure, House Bill 9, [...]

Brad Keithley (NGP Photo) Commentary.  The Alaska "House Special Committee on Fiscal Policy " (this week) released a new website focused on "Understanding Alaska's Budget."  The website may explain much more than the authors intend about how Alaska has worked itself into its coming fiscal crisis -- and why recent legislatures have made the problem worse. The press release  announcing the website provides the first clue.  The release quotes the Chair of the House Special Committee as follows: “We’re in the cat-bird seat, financially, now, but with throughput this week under 400,000 barrels, and with a volatile oil price, [...]

  Alaska Journal of Commerce by Tim Bradner (NGP Photo).  With its Arctic drill fleet now assembled in Dutch Harbor, Shell is waiting on unpredictable Mother Nature. Summer ice conditions along the northern Alaska coast are the worst in a 10-year period, Shell spokesman Curtis Smith (NGP Photo-R) said July 9.   The heavy ice has caused target dates for the company’s first drilling at two exploration prospects in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas to be pushed into the first week of August, Smith said.  “This is the heaviest ice coverage we [...]

Chairman Doc Hastings (NGP Photo) invites Interior Department officials to the 'hot seat'.   House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) on Friday, July 13 sent a letter to Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar regarding the Committee’s request for transcribed interviews with five Department officials who were personally involved in developing the May 2010 Interior Department report that falsely stated independent engineers had peer reviewed and supported a drilling moratorium.  In this follow-up letter, Chairman Hastings states that he intends to invite the five Department officials, and possibly [...]