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Geothermal at Makushin Volcano Unalaska’s Native village corporation, Ounalashka Corporation, has teamed up with Fairbanks-based Chena Power, led by energy entrepreneur Bernie Karl, to develop geothermal power at Makushin Volcano near Unalaska. The plan is to build a 30 megawatt power plan to supply the community and its large fish processing plants. The venture, 51 percent owned by Ounalashka, is working to secure a power sales agreement with the City of Unalaska and to secure $300 million to $500 million…

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Final EIS on Ambler road The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will issue the final Environmental Impact Statement, or FEIS, for the Ambler industrial road in February. The original target was December. Traditionally a federal Record of Decision, a final approval, comes 30 days after the FEIS. BLM is considering three route options for the single-lane gravel road from the Dalton Highway to the Ambler Mining District in the western Brooks Range. The shortest is 211 miles and is preferred…

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Gov. Mike Dunleavy made virtually no cuts to existing state agency budgets in his spending plan released Dec. 15, and allowed increases for “formula” programs like school support and Medicaid. The governor also had to submit a balanced budget, so his plan includes $1.5 billion taken from the state’s Constitutional Budget Reserve to fund the proposal. This is a tacit acknowledgment of a $1.5 billion deficit for FY 2021, which begins next July 1. Since the CBR fund, which holds…

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Cloud on horizon: New state fuel taxes Anchorage’s Ted Stevens International Airport could see a boomlet in air cargo construction starting next year with about $700 million in projects planned including expansions by UPS and Federal Express, which now operate cargo-sorting hubs at Anchorage’s airport. Much of this is tied to international air cargo, mainly North America-Asia, and what’s interesting is the big cargo operators obviously assume the China-U.S. trade war will be resolved. Also interesting is that there doesn’t…

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Despite the array of new North Slope projects underway oil production is expected to decline in the near term from 492,000 barrels per day average in state Fiscal Year 2020 (the current budget year ending June 30) and drop further to 490,500 barrels per day in FY 2021, the budget year starting next July 1. This is according to the latest long-term production forecast by the state Department of Revenue, published Dec. 6. By 2024 production is expected to be…

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North Slope producers – full plate of projects North Slope producers have a full plate of projects in 2020 and beyond as companies speed development of new discoveries. More new finds are coming, too. Here are key points: • ConocoPhillips is on a streak of new discoveries, mostly in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska • $24 billion investment seen by 2029 to develop new projects • Expectation for near-term production decline; increases in longer-term • Federal government to make new exploration…

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