Anchorage Daily Planet.  Alaskans should be furious that Shell again is being forced to postpone its Arctic drilling program, until at least 2012, because of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency delays in issuing air pollution permits. The permits - for diesel engines aboard exploration vessels - were issued nearly a year ago, but the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission and environmental organizations appealed. The EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board in Washington, D.C., ordered more work on the permits. The Anchorage Daily News reported: “One of the issues: The Seattle office said the permit [...]

Anchorage Daily Planet by Tom Brennen (NGP Photo) Throughput in the trans-Alaska pipeline has been going down ever since that fateful day when I unwittingly announced that the North Slope oilfields had peaked out.  I’m hoping the Legislature will soon reduce oil taxes and get the industry exploring again to flatten the production curve and keep the oil flowing. Otherwise I’m afraid somebody will blame it on me.* * * Shell Oil’s announcement that it won’t be drilling in the Beaufort Sea this year was no surprise — they just ran out [...]

ADN by Becky Bohrer, The Associated Press --  JUNEAU — BP estimates that it could begin producing oil off Alaska's coast in 2013, despite the fact that construction of the massive Liberty rig has been suspended indefinitely. Dallas News: The Electric Reliability Council of Texas said 7,000 megawatts of generating capacity tripped Tuesday night, leaving the state without enough juice. That’s enough capacity to power about 1.4 million homes. By rotating outages, ERCOT said it prevented total blackouts…“We have the double whammy of extremely high demand, given the lowest temperatures [...]

For Alaska friends: a reader sent this link to a speech I gave 2 years ago to the International Association of Energy Economists.  It now seems to have pretty well forecasted what we are now experiencing.  What do you think? ADN by Elizabeth Bluemink.  The state government's reimbursements to a major Canadian pipeline company seeking to develop a North Slope gas line skyrocketed late last year Edmonton Journal by Shaun Polczer .  During the quarter, Imperial and partners received regulatory approval to build the $16-billion Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline [...]

ADN by Richard Mauer.  So, you don't believe TransCanada will ever get enough customers to build a gas line to the Lower 48 or Valdez? And you think it even more likely that Conoco Phillips and BP's Denali gas project is doomed, since it has neither the state license nor the half-billion-dollar subsidy that TransCanada has?  And that bullet line from the North Slope to Southcentral Alaska: Do you want to spend three times as much as you do now on gas, for the next 50 or so years?  Enter [...]

KTVA by Natalie Travis (NGP Photo, w/Author) -- The Energy Task Force 2010 Annual Report indiciated the deliverability of natural gas from Cook Inlet may affect the health, safety and ecomonic welfare of Alaska.  Natalie Travis interviews Dave Harbour and Steve Pratt (NGP Photo-r).

Oilweek.  The Northwest Territories has moved a step closer to assuming the powers of a province over the objections of most of its aboriginal leaders.  "Much of what the provinces have today, northerners are asking for in a decision-making process around developments that occur in the North," Premier Floyd Roland (NGP Photo) said just before signing an agreement in principle to transfer control over northern land and resources from Ottawa to Yellowknife.