by wp_sysadmin | Jan 31, 2019 | Home, News
Alaska Senate Majority 2019 Survey Results
Our Take – We appreciate the Senate Majority giving Alaskans an opportunity to provide input on issues facing Alaska. We also note, as does the Senate Majority, the shortcomings of the polling process.
Collaborative effort for Arctic icebreaking gains traction
Associated Press, January 31, 2019
A proposal to use private and foreign ships to help fill the demand for commercial icebreaking is gaining traction among Arctic stakeholders. Polar Institute Director Mike Sfraga said the concept would be similar to ride-hailing services like Uber, but instead it would be a commercial ship calling for support vessels to help cross Arctic waters, Alaska Public Media reported Wednesday. The “Uber for icebreakers” model would call for a collaborative effort among the northern countries to create an Arctic pathway paid by commerce fees, Sfraga said at a roundtable discussion in the U.S. Senate last week.
Our Take: An interesting concept worth investigating. If the US has to wait 10 years for one icebreaker – it pretty much defeats the notion of being prepared.
Interior delays public comment deadline for ANWR oil leasing
Elizabeth Harball, Alaska’s Energy Desk, January 30, 2019
Following the government shutdown, the Interior department is giving the public an additional month to weigh in on its controversial plans to allow oil leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In a statement, top Interior official Joe Balash said the comment period is being extended from February 11 to March 13, in response to requests from Alaska communities and tribes, as well as nonprofits from across the U.S. Democrats in Congress who oppose drilling in the Refuge had also written letters urging Interior to extend the comment period, arguing the shutdown limited the agency’s ability to provide information to the public. During the government shutdown, Interior was continuing to plan meetings about oil leasing in the Refuge, leading to outcry from Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups. The agency later announced it was delaying the meetings, although the dates and locations had never been publicly announced.
Our Take: The public has more time to comment. Here is the schedule for hearings. Don’t miss your opportunity.
FERC delays on LNG decision frays nerves
James Osborne, The Houston Chronicle, January 31, 2019
The mysterious delay of a $4.5 billion liquefied natural gas facility on the Louisiana coast has turned a case before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission into the subject of a Washington guessing game raising fears that what had been a predictable approval process for the nation’s booming natural gas exports is becoming mired in partisan politics.
Our Take: A predictable process hijacked by politics does not create a stable investment environment.
by wp_sysadmin | Jan 30, 2019 | Home, News
Mat-Su Borough keeps up fight over LNG site
Larry Persily, Alaska Journal of Commerce, January 29, 2019
The Matanuska-Susitna Borough on Jan. 25 added 145 pages to its ongoing argument that Port MacKenzie would be a better location than Nikiski for the Alaska LNG project’s natural gas liquefaction plant and marine terminal. The borough, which owns the property across Knik Arm from Anchorage, added additional comments, maps, charts and photos to the docket at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is scheduled to release its draft environmental review of the Alaska LNG proposal sometime in February. The borough has long been critical of the site selection, Port MacKenzie alternative analysis and answers provided by the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., the state-funded corporation that is leading the proposed $43 billion project.
Slug of proposed permits launches comment periods for Donlin Gold project
Alex DeMarban, Anchorage Daily News, January 29, 2019
The state of Alaska on Monday launched a roughly two-month comment period for several proposed decisions that would advance the Donlin Gold project, including one that would grant the right-of-way lease for a 315-mile-long natural gas pipeline. If approved by the state, they won’t be all the authorizations the Southwest Alaska project will need. But they would help significant parts of it move forward, including a road, the port, an airstrip and a fiber-optic cable, officials said Tuesday.
New Mexico takes aim at emissions
Caroline Evans, Upstream Online, January 29, 2019
The governor of the US state of New Mexico has announced plans to tighten rules on emissions from oil and gas activities as part of a wide-ranging agenda to dramatically cut greenhouse gas pollution. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order on Tuesday that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% over 2005 levels by 2030. Lujan Grisham said her administration was seeking the cuts to lessen effects on the environment, limit adverse impacts from climate change, and reduce energy waste. The order calls on New Mexico’s Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department and Environment Department to jointly develop a statewide, enforceable regulatory framework “to secure reductions in oil and gas sector methane emissions and to prevent waste from new and existing sources and enact such rules as soon as practicable”.
Our Take: This is what happens when politicians make decisions before understanding an issue. Oil and gas producers are the ones investing in advanced technologies and tools that lead to declining emissions. Attacking the industry that is leading the charge (not to mention funding a significant portion of state government) is short-sighted.
An oil giant backs a high-tech rescue for collapsing Arctic ice cellars in Alaska
Gregory Scruggs, Thomas Reuters Foundation, January 29, 2019
When Inupiaq hunters wrestle a 100-ton bowhead whale back to land from the high seas, the next challenge is where to store all that meat. For centuries, the Inupiaq, an Alaska Native group that lives along the shores of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, have dug cellars into the permafrost as a form of natural refrigeration. Now those “ice cellars” are under threat. Warming temperatures are melting permafrost, while coastal erosion is exposing the underground chambers. Scientists and the Inupiaq are split on whether climate change or human factors, like shoddy construction, are to blame for the collapsing cellars, found in all eight villages scattered across Alaska’s North Slope, an area roughly the size of Britain and home to about 9,800 people.
Our Take: Headlamp wonders why it takes the author so long to get to the heart of the matter? “The $120,000 investment needed to install the cellar was donated as an act of corporate philanthropy by petroleum company ExxonMobil, which operates the Point Thomson oil field 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of Kaktovik. Oil companies fund much of the infrastructure on the North Slope through royalties they pay to local government.”
by wp_sysadmin | Jan 29, 2019 | Home, News
Former public face of Pebble mine could lead the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation
James Brooks, Anchorage Daily News, January 28, 2019
The former public face of the Pebble mine project is advancing closer to a confirmation vote as head of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, despite a surge of public testimony in opposition. On Friday, the Alaska Senate Resources Committee recommended that the nomination of Jason Brune by Gov. Mike Dunleavy be forwarded to a confirmation vote during a joint session of the Alaska House and Alaska Senate. The recommendation, largely a formality, came after one hour of questions from senators and one hour of public testimony primarily from opponents of his confirmation.
Our Take: Commissioner Brune is an excellent choice to lead the Department of Environmental Conservation. Opponents who claim his long resume of promoting responsible resource development will lead him to destroy the environment are just plain wrong.
U.S. Refiners Brace for Venezuelan Supply Crunch
Irina Slav, OilPrice.Com, January 29, 2019
The Trump administration announced new sanctions on Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA, which will significantly reduce its crude oil exports to Gulf Coast refiners, Reuters reports, without adding any details as to the nature of the sanctions. But according to Rystad Energy, ‘’the effects of the sanctions will not be as harsh as the United States expects’’ as PDVSA will be looking to re-route crude exports. New sanctions against Venezuela have been discussed for a while as the situation in the South American country quickly deteriorated after the start of the second presidential term of Nicolas Maduro. There was some skepticism among analysts whether Washington will go the whole nine yards and slap a blanket oil import ban on Venezuelan crude, and the Reuters report seems to confirm it. A total ban on Venezuelan oil imports would push prices at the pump considerably until Gulf Coast refiners replace their deliveries with other sources of heavy crude.
Related:
Exxon OK’s project to nearly double size of Texas refinery:
by wp_sysadmin | Jan 28, 2019 | Home, News
What does the future of Copper mean for Alaska & the world?
Kieran Baker, Alaskanomics, January 26, 2019
According to the latest report in a new copper supply & demand outlook, by Fitch Solutions, global refined copper will grow steadily over the coming years, driven by demand from the power industry and rising electric vehicle (EV) production. Fitch forecasts that global copper demand will increase from 23.6mnt in 2018 to 29 .8mnt by 2027, at 2.6% annual growth. It makes sense that mining companies are searching worldwide for copper projects amid the forecasts that demand for the red metal will significantly outstrip supply from 2020; there are 300kg of copper in an electric bus alone and nine tons per wind-farm megawatt. It seems like brown is becoming the new green.
New technology boosts Alaska oil resources: Fuel for Thought
Tim Bradner, S & P Global Platts, January 28, 2019
Rapid technology advances are allowing explorers and producers in Alaska to add hundreds of millions of barrels of new resources to portfolios at a cost competitive with finding oil in the Lower 48 states. Chief among the technologies being used are advanced 3-D seismic and new data processing techniques, to define and map oil deposits in geological formations that have long been known but were thought to be unproductive. Companies are also using advances in horizontal drilling techniques to reach deposits. In the last two years, over 1.5 billion barrels of recoverable oil has been found mainly in the west central North Slope and northeast National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, areas companies have explored for years.
India’s 2018 thermal coal imports grew at fastest pace in four years: sources
Sudarshan Varadhan, Reuters, January 25, 2019
Coal is among the top five commodities imported by India, one of the world’s largest consumers of coal, and the rise in imports of the fuel after two consecutive years of decline adds to its trade deficit. That trade gap has been hurting the valuation of the rupee, the worst performing major Asian currency in 2018. Thermal coal imports jumped 19 percent to 171.85 million tons in 2018, marking the fastest pace of growth since 2014, according to data from American Fuels & Natural Resources, a Dubai-based trader of U.S.-origin coal. Energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie also said imports grew at their fastest pace since 2014, to 164 million tons in 2018.
From the Washington Examiner Daily on Energy:
EIA CONFIRMS US EMISSIONS HIKE LAST YEAR: The Energy Information Administration confirmed Monday that U.S. carbon emissions rose in 2018, although the agency expects that to be a one-year blip.
The EIA said emissions increased 2.8 percent in 2018 — the largest year-to-year rise since 2010. But the agency said emissions will decline again in 2019 and 2020.
The report comes after the Rhodium Group earlier this month projected that U.S. carbon emissions rose 3.4 percent in 2018 after three years of decline, even as a record number of coal plants retired.
The Rhodium Group found U.S. emissions’ increases in all major sectors: electricity, transportation, buildings, and industrial.
What’s driving the increase: It attributed higher emissions from last year to an unusually hot summer and cold winter, and increased manufacturing activity.
The EIA report, likewise, said weather conditions and “continued economic growth” were the primary drivers of higher energy consumption, and emissions.
Emissions from natural gas, a common home-heating fuel, increased 10 percent.
by wp_sysadmin | Jan 25, 2019 | Home, News
Bad Bill of the Week: It’s good to know that Alaskans can count on Senator Scott Kawasaki to be consistent in his behavior – introducing legislation that wastes time and resources. He perfected the practice while in the house. SB 28 – “An Act renaming the state bird as the Common Raven.” is Headlamp’s choice for this week’s bad bill. Two committee referrals – state affairs and resources.
‘Under siege’, oil industry mulls raising returns and PR game
Dmitry Zhdannikov, January 24, 2019
When the global oil industry held its biggest annual gathering this week in the Swiss town of Davos, it invited banking bosses and fund managers to discuss two key topics – climate change and pressure from investors. The conclusion of the discussions was worrying for those present – pressure is rising and the industry is losing a battle not to be seen as one of the world’s biggest evils. The answer? Lure investors with higher returns and raise the PR game. “There is no doubt – and there is a consensus coming here in various meetings in Davos – that our industry is literally under siege and the future of oil is at stake,” said Mohammed Barkindo, secretary-general of oil producer group OPEC.
Our Take: Headlamp agrees. The industry has a fantastic story to tell – raising the standard of living for people worldwide and leading the charge in reducing emissions globally with new technology.
Related:
Guest Opinion: Natural gas can help us make environmental gains
Trump Eyes Action to Limit States’ Powers to Block Pipelines
Ari Natter & Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Bloomberg, January 25, 2019
The Trump administration is considering taking steps to limit the ability of states to block interstate gas pipelines and other energy projects, according to three people familiar with the deliberations. The effort, possibly done through an executive order, is aimed chiefly at states in the Northeast U.S., where opposition to pipeline projects has helped prevent abundant shale gas in Pennsylvania and Ohio from reaching consumers in New York and other cities. New York used a Clean Water Act provision to effectively block the construction of a natural gas pipeline being developed by Williams Partners LP to carry Marcellus shale gas 124 miles (200 km) to New England. The project got the green light from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission but ran into obstacles in New York, where regulators denied a water quality permit.
EIA Sees Continued US Energy Growth
Natural Gas News, January 24, 2019
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA), in its Annual Energy Outlook 2019 released January 24, is projecting robust energy growth in the US, led by shale and tight oil and natural gas and renewables. In its Reference case (there are also six side cases which examine the robustness of certain assumptions), the EIA projects the US will be a net energy exporter in 2020 – for the first time in more than 70 years – and will remain so through 2050. The export growth is driven largely by crude oil and products, but also reflects additional exports of LNG. “The US has become the largest producer of crude oil in the world, and growth in domestic oil, natural gas, and renewable energy production is quickly establishing the US as a strong global energy producer for the foreseeable future” EIA administrator Linda Capuano said. “For example, the US produced almost 11mn b/d of crude oil in 2018, exceeding our previous 1970 record of 9.6mn b/d.”
From the Washington Examiner, Daily on Energy:
REPUBLICANS SCHEDULE CONFIRMATION VOTE FOR EPA’S WHEELER: Republicans of the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee announced Thursday the panel will vote Feb. 5 on EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s nomination to stay on leading the agency.
The announcement came after Senate Majority Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., met with Wheeler.
“He is an impressive, experienced nominee and I look forward to supporting his nomination,” McConnell said in a Twitter post.
Wheeler, a former energy lobbyist and Senate Republican staffer, has led the EPA since July after former Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned from the post amid numerous scandals over his misuse of federal funds.
