by wp_sysadmin | Mar 31, 2020 | News
COVID 19
Double Speak
Craig Medred, March 30, 2020
Alaska’s largest newspaper is again downsizing, but it is
understandable if you missed this news. The
email to ADN.com viewers from editor David Hulen required fluency in Orwellian
doublespeak. One could easily have taken
at face value his pitch that “ADN has mobilized to cover the coronavirus
crisis” and missed the contradiction that followed: “We’ve had to temporarily cut back hours and
pay for all employees, along with some painful layoffs.” A reduction in force through layoffs,
shrinking man hours and pay cuts is not a mobilization. It is what the military
would call a demobilization.
IRS
Gives Stimulus Check Distribution Details, Says Payments To Begin Within Three
Weeks
OIL
Oil
Search adds to industry job losses
The Australian Pipeliner, March 30, 2020
Approximately
100 Oil Search staff have lost their jobs after the company moved to reduce
operating costs in response to current market conditions. The cuts were made to Oil Search’s offices in
Sydney and Anchorage, Alaska, while its board and executive will also take a 20
per cent salary reduction for the next six months. The move comes in response to the oil price
crash and the COVID-19 pandemic, with the company having already suspended all
upcoming discretionary activities, other than those required to maintain
production of oil and gas from its Papua New Guinea facilities. Oil Search Managing Director Dr Keiran Wulff
said the decision had been “very difficult”.
GAS
Shell drops out of major US LNG project
Ron Bousso, Shradha Singh, Scott DiSavino, Reuters, March 30, 2020
Royal Dutch Shell Plc pulled out of a major U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant under development following the recent crash in energy prices, quickly followed by its partner, Energy Transfer LP, delaying its final decision on whether to go ahead with the project to next year. The Lake Charles, Louisiana, facility is one of several LNG export projects worldwide that have been delayed in recent months by the collapse in global energy prices. Global LNG demand has been hitting record highs for years, thanks to big demand from Asian nations like China and India as they diversify away from dirtier coal power generation.
MINING
Dunleavy is doing the right thing on Pebble
Pete Kelly, Anchorage Daily News Opinion, March 30, 2020
Gov. Mike Dunleavy came into office with a message to
potential investors that Alaska was open for business. It was not a carte
blanche invitation to roll into the state and get rubber-stamped permits.
Rather, it was a message to potential investors that if they play by the rules
and meet strict state and federal regulations, then Alaska will provide a fair
process to determine if a project is right for us. Here’s how the Dunleavy
message applies to the Pebble Project: Prove your project under our rules, using
solid science, and if it’s good for Alaska – we will welcome the opportunity.
How will we know it’s good for Alaska? The permitting process. That’s the
scientific review by which we evaluate all projects. And that’s the
counterpoint to all the madness over Pebble.
POLITICS
New
Polls And New Candidates Are Giving Democrats Some Hope Of Flipping The Senate
Nathaniel Rakich, FiveThirtyEight, March 30, 2020
The
topsy-turvy Democratic primary for president dominated political news for the
first two-and-a-half months of 2020 — and rightfully so, it was bonkers — but
now that it’s settled down, it’s time for us to check in once again on the
other major political battle of 2020: the fight for the U.S. Senate. Republicans started the cycle with the
advantage, but Democrats have had reason for optimism of late. New polls have
shown Democratic challengers ahead of GOP incumbents, the party is recruiting strong
candidates, and, perhaps most importantly given the tight correlation between
presidential and Senate voting, former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democrat
who has polled the best against President Trump, has become the party’s likely
presidential nominee.
by wp_sysadmin | Mar 30, 2020 | News
Happy Seward’s
Day Alaska!!
COVID 19
FDA authorizes widespread use of unproven drugs to treat coronavirus, saying possible benefit outweighs risk
Christopher Rowland, The Washington Post, March 30, 2020
The Food and Drug Administration has given emergency
approval to a Trump administration plan to distribute millions of doses of
anti-malarial drugs to hospitals across the country, saying it is worth the
risk of trying unproven treatments to slow the progression of the disease in
seriously ill coronavirus patients. There
have only been a few, very small anecdotal studies that show a possible benefit
of the drugs, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, to relieve the acute
respiratory symptoms of Covid-19 and clear the virus from infected patients.
OIL
The
end of OPEC or a new beginning?
Sarah Ladislaw, Center for Strategic and International Studies, March 30,
2020
Many people have heralded the “end of OPEC” throughout its
60-year history. Even when it was alive some analysts regarded it as
functionally dead several times. The most recent time was during the oil price
crash of 2014 when U.S. oil production so voraciously outpaced demand growth
that OPEC walked away from trying to bolster prices in an effort to let market
forces tamp down the U.S. tight oil sector. Even then, OPEC members came back
together in 2016 with a newly established OPEC+ arrangement—adding Russia and a
handful of other non-OPEC producers to their alliance in order to bolster the
size of their market share and influence on the market.
What
to watch in the oil market this week
Matthew W. Veazey, Rigzone, March 30, 2020
The oil market’s volatility last week prompted a trio of
market-watchers assembled by Rigzone to suggest themes that one might observe
in an action film. Looking ahead to this week, our panelists anticipate more
tough times in the near-term but also opportunities for deal-making and even a
glimpse of better days perhaps in the coming months. Read on for their
perspectives.
Alyeska
Pipeline continues to operate critical infrastructure while protecting families
& communities
Alyeska continues to proactively apply guidance from our
medical experts and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Whether
working from home or transiting in the state or local communities, we have
implemented best practices in order to protect our workforce as well as those
around them. These steps include hygiene protocols, self-monitoring for
illness, maintaining social distancing, eliminating most travel, and
implementing telework wherever possible because we take our responsibilities
seriously.
GAS
Exclusive:
Civil rights leaders oppose swift move off natural gas
Amy Harder, Axios, March 29, 2020
Top American civil rights activists are opposing an abrupt
move away from natural gas, putting them at odds with environmentalists and
progressive Democrats who want to ban fracking.
Driving the news: In recent interviews, Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse
Jackson and National Urban League President Marc Morial said energy costs are
hitting people of color unfairly hard. These concerns, expressed before the
coronavirus pandemic, are poised to expand as paychecks shrink across America.
MINING
Critical Infrastructure
Sectors
There are 16 critical infrastructure sectors whose assets,
systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to
the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a
debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public
health or safety, or any combination thereof. Presidential Policy Directive 21
(PPD-21): Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience advances a national
policy to strengthen and maintain secure, functioning, and resilient critical
infrastructure. This directive supersedes Homeland Security Presidential
Directive 7.
POLITICS
Governor
Dunleavy gives FY21 budget a mixed grade
“Early this morning, (March 29th), the 31st Alaska State Legislature recessed after finishing work on the FY 2021 Operating and Capital Budget, the FY 2020 Supplemental Budget, and extending the Public Health Emergency Disaster Declaration for COVID-19. Governor Mike Dunleavy appreciates the fact that lawmakers worked quickly to pass a budget and, that certain funding was included to combat aspects of the pandemic and the associated economic fallout. However, the Governor feels the legislature missed the mark by not including a cash infusion that many leading economists believe should be implemented as quickly as possible. “
by wp_sysadmin | Mar 27, 2020 | News
COVID 19
Meet
the Doctor Developing a Vaccine for COVID 19
Best
run for stocks since the 1930’s
When
and How Will I Get That $1200 Stimulus Payment?
OIL
Fuel Supply Networks are Responding Properly
Dean Foreman, API Energy Blog, March 26, 2020
Supply networks for refined products – including gasoline,
diesel and jet fuel – appear to be responding properly and flexibly to sudden
and sharp declines for transportation fuel stemming from the coronavirus (COVID-19)
and global efforts to slow its spread.
Market conditions can shift, yet API’s view at this point is that most
refined products markets have continued to function well in keeping about a
month’s worth of storage. We gauge this
in part by comparing recent inventory levels for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel
with their ranges over the past five years. Although some products appear to
have more available storage capacity than others, if needed, it also is
apparent that the pace at which refiners produce fuels can provide additional
adjustments which will affect demand for storage.
GAS
How
COVID 19 will reshape global gas
Nikos Tsafos, Center for Strategic & International Studies, March 25,
2020
The rapidly evolving COVID-19 crisis presents profound
challenges for the global natural gas industry, as it does for the energy
system as a whole and the economy at large. Before COVID-19, the gas industry
was in the midst of four cycles or transformations, whose trajectory the crisis
will alter. First, there was a market cycle characterized by short-term
oversupply, low prices, and record-level investment in future supply, which
threatened to extend the current overhang into the mid-2020s. That imbalance
will get starker in the short term as demand collapses and producers are forced
to curtail output, but less bleak in the long term as projects underway get
delayed and investment in new projects slows as companies cut spending.
LNG Producers Dump Spot Cargoes on Oversupplied Market
Irina Slav, OILPRICE.COM, March 27, 2020
Amid
plunging gas demand, LNG producers are under pressure to dump their cargoes on
the spot market, further depressing already low prices, Reuters reports, citing
commodity trading sources. “We’re seeing
more sell tenders these days due to a combination of factors like coronavirus
and DQT, but this also means that when demand rebounds, buyers will return to
the market to seek spot cargoes,” one source told the news agency, referring to
the downward quantity tolerance stipulation typical of take-or-pay contracts
for natural gas that allows the buyer to buy less than agreed without
consequence.
MINING
Murkowski,
Sullivan: Ambler Access Project Could Help Close the Gap on America’s Mineral
Security
U.S. Sens.
Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both R-Alaska, today issued the following
statements after the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released the final
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Ambler Mining District Industrial
Access Road project.
POLITICS
Green
campaigners want to reduce air travel, just not this much
Ryan Heath, Politico, March 27, 2020
The Climate Group has written openly about the current frustration in green circles. Despite the NGO’s staff being used to remote work, they have never “truly believed in the power of the virtual world to provide the same outcomes as physical attendance at intimate stakeholder meetings, diplomatic discussions or international events.”
by wp_sysadmin | Mar 26, 2020 | News
COVID 19
Ten-Minute Coronavirus Test Moves Closer to Manufacturing
Alonso Soto, Bloomberg Technology, March 26, 2020
U.K.-based Mologic Ltd. has sent prototypes of a 10-minute
coronavirus test to laboratories for validation before it can begin full-scale
manufacturing. The company and its
partner, the Senegalese research foundation Institut Pasteur de Dakar, have
developed a finger-prick test to determine whether a person had the illness and
the state of his or her immune system. The company is also working on a
separate saliva test to detect the presence of the virus. After initial assessment in the U.K., the
prototypes will be sent to other laboratories for validation in a process that
could take three to four months, said Paul Davis, Mologic’s chief scientific
officer.
Families
First Coronavirus Response Act: Employer Paid Leave Requirements
OIL
As
Trump Seeks Pricier Oil, China Saves $250 Million Daily
Dan Murtaugh, Alfred Cang, Debjit Chakraborty, Bloomberg, March 25, 2020
As the U.S.
finds itself in the unfamiliar position of lobbying for higher oil prices,
China’s enjoying what amounts to a major rebate from crude’s crash just as it
tries to recover from the coronavirus. The
world’s biggest oil importer is saving about $250 million a day after crude
prices crashed this year amid dual demand and supply shocks. It’s coming at an
opportune time for its economy, which is expected to post the slowest growth
since the end of the Mao era. Should low prices last, benefits could include a
boost in consumer spending, a stronger trade balance and less stress on
currency reserves, as well as a source of cheap supplies for its strategic
reserves.
GAS
Investors
Are Warming to Natural Gas
Ryan Dezember, Wall Street Journal, March 26, 2020
Traders are
backing off their bearish bets on natural-gas prices, stock buyers are flocking
to the beaten-down shares of Appalachian producers and analysts are forecasting
short supplies of the fuel next year unless those companies get back to
drilling. All this comes with natural
gas fetching its lowest price in a quarter-century and a global pandemic
crushing demand from power plants and factories. It is also spring, when
heating demand from U.S. households typically falls off a cliff.
MINING
Kensington mine to quarantine workers traveling to Juneau
Jacob Resneck, CoastAlaska, March 25, 2020
Employees
and contract workers at Kensington Mine will now be required to spend 14 days
in quarantine in a Juneau hotel. That’s if they arrive from outside Alaska or a
coronavirus-infected community. Coeur
Alaska announced the new measures — effective immediately — on Wednesday
afternoon for the Juneau-area gold mine.
The move follows a similar protocol by Hecla Greens Creek Mine on
Admiralty Island. The workforce at both remote mine sites includes out-of-state
workers who transit through Juneau’s airport.
POLITICS
From
the Washington Examiner, Daily on Energy:
TRUMP QUIET AS SENATE GOP LOOKS FOR ARMAMENT FOR OIL PRICE
WAR: The oil price
war remains alive and well after President Trump did not appear to press Saudi
Arabia to end it during a rare remote G-20 Summit Meeting on Thursday morning.
The U.S. was expected to leverage Saudi Arabia’s status as
head of the G-20 to press it to halt its plan to slash export prices and flood
the market with 12.3 million barrels per day next month, worsening a price
crash also caused by flagging demand from the coronavirus.
Also participating in the meeting was Russia, the other major
player in the price war which split from a Saudi-led OPEC pact to limit
production, sparking retaliation from the Kingdom.
Before the meeting, Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian
President Vladimir Putin, told reporters the topic of oil would not come up.
The U.S. has blamed Russia for the price war, accusing it of seeking to damage
American shale producers who have taken market share while the Saudis and
Moscow held back production.
Trump and Senate Republicans diverge on Saudi policy: The Trump administration has taken a lighter touch with Saudi Arabia; an ally Trump has held close even as other countries have distanced from the Kingdom after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke with Saudi Arabia Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday, encouraging the Kingdom to embrace a
“real opportunity to rise to the occasion and assure global energy and
financial markets when the world faces serious economic uncertainty.”
But Senate Republicans from oil states are escalating their calls for the Trump administration to take a tougher line with Saudi Arabia. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska led a letter to Pompeo Wednesday reminding him that the U.S. has “enormously powerful tools at our disposal,” including imposing oil import tariffs and sanctions, withdrawing military aid, and even passing NOPEC legislation that would allow the U.S. to sue the oil cartel for antitrust violations.
“By taking advantage of a confusing situation and desperate time, the Kingdom risks its bilateral relationship with the United States,” the senators said.
by wp_sysadmin | Mar 25, 2020 | News
COVID 19
Legislature
expands unemployment benefits, allow all Alaskans out of work due to COVID 19 to apply
Shayne Nuesca, KTVA, March 24, 2020
Small
business relief tracker: Funding, grants and resources for business owners
grappling with coronavirus
Oil
Bailout for big oil: democrats eliminate $3 billion strategic petroleum reserve purchase in pandemic relief package
Josh Siegel, Washington Examiner, March 25, 2020
Senate Democrats say they were able to eliminate the $3
billion for restocking the nation’s emergency Strategic Petroleum Reserve from
the pandemic relief package. Earlier
versions of the relief bill proposed by Republicans contained the funding, an
amount requested by the Energy Department, which was intended to help the oil
industry reeling from low prices. But
Democrats and Republicans haggled over energy and climate-related provisions,
with Democrats asking for carbon emissions restrictions on airlines and tax
subsidies for renewables as part of the relief package.
Gas
Cheap
gasoline forcing US refiners to throttle back
Jessica Summers and Barbara Powell, Bloomberg, March 24, 2020
Oil refiners across the U.S. are being forced to throttle
back operations amid a historic plunge in gasoline demand and prices. Plants representing more than 10% of U.S.
fuel-making capacity have cut back. Exxon Mobil Corp. has slowed rates at
facilities in Texas and Louisiana, while others around Los Angeles and
Philadelphia are taking similar action to stem a growing glut of gasoline,
diesel and jet fuel. Phillips 66 said Tuesday many of its refineries are
processing minimum amounts of crude. Refiners
are acutely exposed to the financial impact of the spreading coronavirus.
Mining
Fairbanks
area mines look after seniors
Shane Lasley, North of 60 Mining News, March 20, 2020
Amidst the scramble to prepare for an imminent pandemic that
is roiling mining and metals markets, the three large mines in Interior Alaska
have taken the time to look after the members of their community most
vulnerable to COVID-19. On March 12,
Kinross Fort Knox Mine, Northern Star Resources Ltd. Pogo Mine and Usibelli
Coal Mine collectively donated $21,000 to support an emergency funding request
received from the North Star Council on Aging for the Fairbanks Senior Center.
Politics
Forget politics – Majority of Republicans and Democrats now agree coronavirus is serious threat
Reuters, March 25, 2020
