ADN by Elizabeth Bluemink (NGP Photo).  Scientists say Alaska's Arctic waters could hide a massive storehouse for oil and natural gas, estimated to nearly rival the onshore discoveries of the North Slope. Betting on that, Shell two years ago spent more than $2 billion to obtain leases in the two seas and mobilized hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of equipment to Alaska. But after spending all that money, the oil company has been stymied. Environmentalists and North Slope governments sounded the alarm about potential impacts on bowhead whales and [...]

Alaska Gas Pipeline Coordinator, Mark Meyers (NGP Photo), issued a report documenting status of projects.  Here is his cover letter and here is his full report. See ADN story by Elizabeth Bluemink.  The Alaska Department of Natural Resources on Tuesday issued a 51-page report detailing work so far by TransCanada Corp. and Exxon Mobil, the two companies attempting to develop the pipeline under a state license, which requires the state to reimburse up to $500 million of the cost of the multibillion-dollar project.  The two companies now have 100 people working [...]

    ADN by Elizabeth Bluemink (NGP Photo).  "All of a sudden, we are going from the abstract to the real," saidMark Myers (NGP Photo), a state official overseeing the project of TransCanada Corp., the Canadian pipeline company that won the state's license. In June, TransCanada began working with Exxon Mobil, the third major North Slope producer, on its project.  Critics of the state's approach, however, predict that no one will commit their gas next year and that millions of dollars in public money will be wasted over the next [...]

Alaska Dispatch by Rena Delbridge.  The state is getting ready to write its first check to TransCanada Corp., its partner in pursuit of a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to North American markets.  The state's licensee under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, TransCanada filed an invoice earlier this month for expenditures it made through the end of the first quarter 2009. TransCanada vice president Tony Palmer (NGP Photo) confirmed his company turned in expenses from December 2008, just after receiving the state's license under AGIA, through the first quarter of 2009, [...]

 Brett Chandler's Blog.  Jim Prentice intimates here that the Mackenzie Valley Gasline is a national environmental priority.     *     Scott Heyworth alerts us of a New EIA Arctic Report examining the discovered and undiscovered Arctic oil and natural gas resource base with respect to their location and concentration.  The paper also discusses the cost and impediments to developing Arctic oil and natural gas resources, including those issues associated with environmental habitats and political boundaries.       *        The Alaska Standard, by Alex Gimarc.  "Warning to the readership; [...]

Do Enough of Us Care In The OCS Battle of Wills?   Comment by Dave Harbour, Publisher, www.northerngaspipelines.com   The good news is that about a half-million Alaskans and Lower 48 citizens have commented on three Administration initiatives that could strengthen or cripple America's economy and decisively affect Alaska's future.  The overwhelming majority of those commenting on the Department of Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) request for comment on a proposed 2010-2015 lease sale program commented in favor of developing America's Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) energy potential.   Then a White [...]