Week Ending July 11, 2014	No images? Click here

Alaska Energy Dudes and Divas

Where Alaskans, lawmakers, and the media go to keep up with energy issues, and legislation utilizing social media to connect, and engage with Alaskans in a fun and interactive way.

Energy Independence: Financial Fact or Political Fiction?

Energy self-sufficiency is a political issue, not an economic one. There is no particular advantage to being energy "independent." Yes, it is important to have enough production capacity to sustain our economy in the event of a global or trade war, but that's also true for many other products, such as food. What really matters for the wealth of our country and for our standard of living is that we maximize our competitive advantage in trade with other countries. If there are other places that can produce energy more efficiently (and thus, more cheaply) than we can produce it here, then we should maximize that advantage through trade.

Article

Miller Energy sharpens its Alaska focus

Miller Energy Resources Inc. dropped two significant announcements recently.

First, the company said a newly completed sidetrack well had boosted production from its West McArthur River unit in Alaska's Cook Inlet basin by 50 percent.

Second, Miller said it was engaged in "strategic discussions" to sell its assets in Tennessee, where the company is headquartered.

Article

Natural gas is coming, but lots of work remains

Utilities, state agencies and local leaders are gearing up for what they say will be a great deluge of affordable, clean-burning natural gas into the Fairbanks area.

Crews are busily installing service lines, utilities are boasting of grand plans for expansion, there are town halls on the subject and local politicians are patting themselves on the back.

Public meetings and townhalls coming to the Fairbanks area

Article

Apache Said to Seek Buyer for Wheatstone LNG Stake

“A number of companies across the industry are starting to pull back from some projects they previously had been pursuing with a fair bit of vigor,” John Young, a Melbourne-based analyst at Ord Minnett Ltd., said today by phone. “They could perceive they have more attractive opportunities in the U.S.”

Article

FCC rule change reveals political ad sales

A little-publicized Federal Communications Commission rule that requires TV broadcasters to publish their political advertising numbers online went into effect last week, and the number of ads reserved so far is staggering, one TV executive told the Empire.

Article

Peak Prosperity and Peak Cheap Oil: Chris Martenson Interview

YouTube

Oral Histories from Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

Project

Increasing energy costs make saving a challenge

With rising energy costs, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District continues to try to reduce energy consumption to save money.

While utilities make up slightly more than 4 percent of KPBSD’s fiscal year 2015 budget, the district and the borough have implemented programs and projects to save money and energy throughout the years.

In fiscal year 2008, the district started an energy conservation program. The money saved through the program is reallocated for educational purposes. Through the program each school is given back 25 percent of the cost avoidance based on energy consumption or usage by site.

Article

Redefining Crude Oil: Investing in the Condensate Producers

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski is the latest official to push the Commerce Department to revise its definition of "crude oil," hoping to see condensate removed from the definition. This is primarily centered on circumventing a ban on exporting crude, and with several other government agencies' definitions excluding condensate, it is a case that has a lot of momentum.

Article

Nikiski Saves Alaska... and the U.S.?

Nowadays, it seems like every positive headline regarding our energy boom is coming out of just two states: Texas and North Dakota.

Yet this only captures a piece of the energy puzzle. Truth be told, it's about time there was some good news elsewhere.

Article

BP Estimates World Oil Reserves Will Last Another 53.3 Years

We have been told for years that the world is about to reach peak oil and that it will all go downhill from there on, and yet, the overwhelming majority of cars sold around the world (the exceptions are insignificant) are powered by oil-derived fuels.

Article

World has ample oil now but risks "extraordinarily high"-IEA

Article

Focus on policies, not people: Communication essential to progress on issues facing state

News-Miner opinion: During a recent visit to Washington, D.C., Gov. Sean Parnell sat down for a meeting with Sally Jewell, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior. Gov. Parnell said he arranged the meeting to talk about various issues affecting the state that fell under the purview of the Department of the Interior, chief among them a long-contested proposal to build a road connecting the village of King Cove to an airstrip in Cold Bay that would allow residents to make the trip by land instead of by sea.

Article

Global oil demand to keep on rising

Global oil demand growth will accelerate next year as the world economy expands and will again be met by rising supplies from the United States and Canada, further eroding OPEC’s market share, the West’s energy watchdog said on Friday.

Article

Global Oil Exploration Nears $1 Trillion - Where Are The Finds?

Two years ago Total's chief Christophe de Margerie launched a "high risk, high reward" oil exploration strategy, betting he could hit a bonanza, even though his rivals had failed to make big discoveries. But Total risks joining the industry trend of making only smaller and fewer finds, despite global investments in oil exploration heading to a record $1 trillion by 2017.

Article

Nanotechnology in the Oil & Gas Industry

Recent work in the University of Alaska Fairbanks has shown that adding metal nanoparticles to supercritical CO2 reduces the viscosity of the recovered heavy oil. This holds promise in increasing oil recovery

Article

Oil prices started to skyrocket when one quarter of global supplies went into irreversible decline

Article

Daniel Yergin traces the effects of America's shale-energy revolution on the balance of global economic and political power

Article

The evolution of Alaska’s oil taxes

Editor’s note: In this issue, you’ll find a comprehensive look at the issues surrounding the upcoming Aug. 19 election that will decide whether Alaska keeps the oil tax reform bill passed in 2013 or returns to the previous system known as ACES, or Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share, that was in place from 2007 until the end of 2013.

Article

Deal reached on water in area tainted by North Pole refinery spill

The state has agreed to share preliminary costs to explore a water system expansion in North Pole, where a decades-old refinery spill continues to contaminate a vast plume of groundwater.

Under terms of the agreement, the state, Flint Hills Resources Alaska and the refinery's former owner, Williams Alaska Petroleum, will equally share costs for preliminary engineering and survey work. It doesn't include a commitment to follow up with construction of an expanded system in the area

Article

Producers erase decline for FY 2014

In a dramatic development, North Slope oil producers have essentially erased a long-term decline trend that has existed for all but one year since 1989 when two new oil fields began producing in 2002

Article

LNG meeting planned

FAIRBANKS — A community meeting is planned from 6-8 p.m. Thursday in Fairbanks to provide a project overview of the Alaska Liquefied Natural Gas project.

The Alaska LNG team will offer a project overview and share information about current studies. There will be an opportunity to provide comments about the project.

The meeting will be at the Wedgewood Resort Gazebo Room, with a presentation planned at 6:30 p.m. For more information, call 855-550-5445

Alaska Energy Dudes and Divas
1120 Huffman Road #269, Anchorage, AK 99515

NEWS ENDING JUlY 11, 2014

Preferences | Unsubscribe