July 2016 – Welcome

Alaska LNG achieves cost reductions: Companies

July 3, 2016

The Alaska LNG Project is making progress in cost-reductions as preliminary engineering nears completion, managers of a joint industry-state consortium told state legislators in recent briefings. Wednesday. Estimates made earlier were for costs to range from $45 billion to $65 billion, but changes in the project made in preliminary Front-End Engineering and Design have lowered the cost to about $45 billion, industry members of the Alaska LNG Groups told lawmakers. The state of Alaska will take over the project at…

State denies permit for Prudhoe–starts gas fight

July 3, 2016

Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas denied approval for renewal of a key operating permit for the Prudhoe Bay field on the North Slope in a letter sent June 30 to BP, the field operator. The division gave field owners BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil until Sept. 1 to remedy issues that were raised, according to the letter. The current permit, the Plan of Development for the field, ended June 30 but has been extended to Nov. 1. The state is…

Governor shows guts – whacks PFD payment

July 3, 2016

Despite legislators’ inability to adopt fiscal reforms, the good news is that Gov. Bill Walker isn’t backing off. He is keeping the issue on the table, and showing plenty of guts. His June 29 veto of half the funding for the Permanent Fund Dividend is a strong and powerful wake-up call to the public and the Legislature–a message delivered with a sledgehammer. Let’s put it this way: He has chosen to be less the politician and more a governor. The…