One of the most frustrating aspects of Alaska’s decades-long debate over a North Slope gasline isn’t just the delay—it’s the contradictory positions some policymakers and commentators have taken over time.
In a recent opinion piece, Dan Saddler points to several statements that deserve a closer look.
Today, some lawmakers argue that Alaska can afford to wait another six months—or even until a new governor takes office—before taking up Alaska LNG legislation.
Senate President Gary Stevens has suggested the Senate remain in a “holding pattern,” while others have proposed postponing negotiations until next year. Larry Persily recently wrote that after waiting 60 years for a gas pipeline, Alaska can wait six more months.
Yet many of these same voices have previously acknowledged that time is exactly what Alaska doesn’t have.
In 2012, Sen. Bill Wielechowski sponsored legislation recognizing that Alaska’s property tax structure made a gas pipeline less competitive. He argued that providing tax relief during construction would improve project economics, attract investment, and ultimately generate greater revenues for the state.
Larry Persily agreed.
Testifying before the Legislature in support of that effort, Persily stated that lawmakers “must look at all options to improve the odds of getting a natural gas pipeline” and acknowledged that property tax relief was “one piece of a fiscal structure for a price competitive project.”
Those statements recognized an important reality: competing for billions of dollars in global energy investment requires Alaska to address barriers before investors walk away—not after.
Today, however, the message has shifted from urgency to patience.
The contradiction is difficult to ignore. If Alaska’s tax structure has long been understood as an obstacle to investment, and if Cook Inlet’s natural gas supplies continue to decline, how does waiting another six months—or longer—improve the state’s position?
Delay is not a neutral decision. Every month without action increases uncertainty for investors, prolongs Alaska’s energy challenges, and narrows the window for securing a long-term solution.
Alaskans deserve consistency. If the economic barriers identified years ago were real then, they remain real today. The state cannot continue acknowledging the problem while postponing the solution.
At some point, waiting becomes a decision in itself—and one Alaska can no longer afford.
A significant court ruling has reaffirmed what Alaska has long argued: once federal lands receive tentative approval for conveyance to the State, they belong to Alaska.
A federal judge last week rejected a bid by conservation groups to stop the Trump administration from conveying land to Alaska to support development of the 200-mile Ambler Road that could open up access for mining in a remote Arctic region.
Alaska U.S. District Judge Aaron Peterson on Friday dismissed portions of the lawsuit, denying the request for a preliminary injunction and removing a legal cloud over the 1.4-million-acre land transfer, tentatively approved by the Interior Department in May.
The state has said the land transfer could also support the proposed Alaska LNG megaproject that seeks to deliver North Slope gas to Asian countries and Alaskans. Conservation groups argue that state control of the land removes federal protections for subsistence hunting and reduce environmental safeguards as mining takes place and projects are developed.
The land lies along the Dalton Highway near Coldfoot north of the Yukon River, where part of the 800-mile trans-Alaska pipeline passes. It’s part of the Dalton Utility Corridor and includes the route that would host the Alaska LNG pipeline, if it is built.
“Right now, LNG import prices are right around $22 per MCF,” he said. “What we’re paying today is $10.80. So that is not an economically sustainable way to move forward as a state.”
Southcentral Alaska residents will likely see costlier home heating bills for the next few winters, as the region’s primary gas utility, Enstar, says nearby Cook Inlet has become a less reliable source of gas.
“We are going to have a problem with deliverability from gas supply out of the Cook Inlet for the next couple years,” Enstar President and CEO John Sims said at a press conference Tuesday at Anchorage City Hall.
The rates consumers pay for gas – and how available gas will be – will largely be determined by how cold it gets this winter, Sims said.
“If we have a winter like we did last year, we are going to have significant challenges and likely see rolling blackouts,” he said.
There is little interest from energy companies to expand production in Cook Inlet, and Enstar has already had to turn away new, large-scale customers to focus on supplying existing ratepayers, Sims said.
The utility is working on a plan to import liquefied natural gas – which is measured in thousands of cubic feet, or MCF – but that’s much more expensive, Sims said.
“Right now, LNG import prices are right around $22 per MCF,” he said. “What we’re paying today is $10.80. So that is not an economically sustainable way to move forward as a state.”
Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance said the impact from high energy costs won’t just be felt by households.
“For local businesses, higher energy costs squeeze profits and threaten jobs,” LaFrance said. “And for the municipality, higher energy bills strain our operating costs, putting pressure on our budget, which impacts municipal service delivery and our taxpayers.”
Sims, LaFrance, and other local stakeholders say they’re pushing the Alaska Legislature to finalize a plan to kick off construction of the Alaska LNG pipeline project to help offset the dwindling gas supply.
Alaska is seeing a resurgence in oil development as Japan and other nations heavily dependent on Middle Eastern oil look to the northernmost U.S. state as part of efforts to diversify their energy sources.
Japan’s need to secure alternative oil supplies has gained urgency during the U.S. war against Iran, after Tehran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a major waterway for global energy shipments.
The monthslong closure and the continuing uncertainty over who should control the strait have raised significant concerns over stable supplies of crude oil to Japan and other resource-poor countries.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi expressed hope during her meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington in March that the two countries will work together to expand the production of U.S.-sourced energy.
Trump at the time called Japan a “tremendous purchaser” of oil and gas from the United States, “in particular Alaska,” acknowledging the shorter shipping route across the Pacific.
A tanker carrying Alaskan crude oil arrived at a refinery near Tokyo on June 7, marking the first shipment from Alaska to Japan since the start of the U.S.-Iran conflict in February.
The company received formal award notice on July 15, 2026, from the State of Alaska for 14 leases covering 34,301 net acres, consisting of 16,507 acres at South Prudhoe and 17,794 acres at Kad River East.
88 Energy Limited reported a 35% increase in prospective oil resources at its South Prudhoe project and outlined plans for exploration drilling in early 2027, according to a company statement released Tuesday.
The company’s South Prudhoe total gross unrisked 2U prospective resources increased to 768.9 million barrels of oil, with 640.7 million barrels net to 88 Energy. The Augusta-1 exploration well is designed to test up to 133.7 million barrels of gross unrisked 2U prospective resources across three reservoir intervals.
88 Energy secured Nordic Rig-3 and an Arctic-rated camp with capacity for 58 personnel for the planned Augusta-1 exploration well. The company indicated the planned first quarter 2027 spud remains subject to securing appropriate funding and completion of required permitting.
The company received formal award notice on July 15, 2026, from the State of Alaska for 14 leases covering 34,301 net acres, consisting of 16,507 acres at South Prudhoe and 17,794 acres at Kad River East.
DEMOCRAT NEGOTIATORS TALK PERMITTING:
We’re about 105 days out from the midterm elections and a bipartisan deal on permitting reform is feeling further out of reach. To find out more about where negotiations are in the Senate, Callie spoke with the top two Democrats in the upper chamber that are leading discussions in the Environment and Public Works and Energy and Natural Resources Committees.
Leadership in the Senate is pushing to reach a deal before the August recess, which will mark about one year since the House first introduced its own legislation to streamline the federal permitting process (Remember Rep. Bruce Westerman’s SPEED Act, passed in December?).
The Senate can’t afford that same timeline, as pressure from the midterms threatens Democratic support – they are not likely to advance a Republican-led package if they take back one of the chambers. So it’s up to Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico to ensure the final deal includes as many of their priorities as possible.
“It’s complicated,” Heinrich told Callie when asked why no text has been released by the Senate. “I mean, there’s just a lot of moving parts, and we’re trying to thread the needle between different policy priorities, and so it takes time.”
While no overarching agreement has been made yet, he said, conversations “continue to be constructive.”
Whitehouse told Callie that it’s key for the final deal to be balanced. If any sections lean too far in one direction, he warned, it could send a “historic message” on where the balance of the bill ends up.
He said that, until that balance is struck between Republicans and Democrats, it is important to keep all details in negotiation.
He did say that a large part of the permitting package will address streamlining federal approvals for transmission – something Democrats have long advocated in order to accelerate the connection of renewable energy projects to the grid.
“That’s the part that we still need to work on,” he said.
Whitehouse also praised his Republican counterpart, EPW Chairwoman Shelley Moore Capito, saying she “continues to be a good partner.”
“We continue to make progress through the issues, and I continue to bug my staff to see what they can get done by the August recess,” he said. From the Washington Examiner, Daily on Energy, July 21, 2026
Juneau cannot demand both. So let’s slow down and look at the record.
If you’ve followed the news this year, you’ve heard two arguments coming out of Juneau. One says Cook Inlet producers aren’t doing enough to keep Southcentral Alaska supplied with natural gas. The other says those same producers should pay a new 9.4 percent state income tax.
What you may not have noticed is that both arguments come from the same corner of the Capitol. For years, some of the loudest voices demanding that the “Texas billionaire” pay more in taxes have also demanded that his company drill more wells in Cook Inlet.
Those two positions cannot both be good policy. Can Alaska demand more gas from Cook Inlet while raising the cost of producing it?
In June 2023, Sen. Bill Wielechowski wrote state officials arguing that Cook Inlet’s biggest producer had failed to meet its obligation to explore and develop the basin and suggested the company could face litigation. In August 2024, he joined Sen. Cathy Giessel in asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate that same company, after earlier letters urging Alaska’s Attorney General to do the same. Whether through committee hearings, public letters, or interviews with the press, the message never changed. The companies operating in Cook Inlet should be doing more.
The State looked into it. The Department of Natural Resources answered that after more than a decade of monitoring, it is confident Hilcorp is meeting its lease obligations, and it warned against inviting federal regulators to second-guess Alaska.
In 2023, Sen. Wielechowski introduced legislation extending Alaska’s corporate income tax to privately held S corporations that do not pay it today. By every account, it was aimed at the very producer he wanted drilling more wells. That bill failed. In 2024, he inserted the same language into the Governor’s carbon storage bill. That failed too. This session, a stand-alone S corporation tax bill has been sitting in the Senate Rules Committee for more than a year. Instead of moving that bill on its own merits, the Senate attached the tax to the gasline tax restructuring bill, the one piece of legislation Alaska needs most. That decision has already consumed two special sessions, drawn a veto threat from the Governor, and triggered a third special session. As the Senate passed it in June, Sen. Wielechowski’s parting words to House members who objected were, “Go ahead. Vote for the Texas billionaire.”
One of America’s most successful “wildcatters” is poised to explore for oil in Venezuela after agreeing a draft deal with the country’s authorities and buying seismic data to gain a head start on rivals.
“It has dreamland geology and a gigantic resource,” said Bill Armstrong, a Texan oilman who helped revive exploration in Alaska and is now racing to capitalise on Donald Trump’s removal in January of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
“There’s no way . . . I ever would have thought Venezuela would be open for business,” he said. “And then out of the blue, with that kind of raid at frickin’ midnight, they come in and they whisk Maduro away.”
Armstrong made his name on Alaska’s North Slope, the remote Arctic region where his 2013 Pikka discovery transformed perceptions of a basin many companies had written off. By the end of that decade he had sold his stake in the project for $850mn to Oil Search, a company later acquired by Australia’s Santos.
His return to frontier exploration comes amid a recovery in wildcatting — the drilling of exploratory wells in areas not known to have productive reserves. But unlike in earlier eras, the wave has been led by oil majors rather than independents like Armstrong who traditionally dominated the field.
This is not supposed to be another academic exercise in which researchers study rocks, publish papers and put the results on a museum shelf. Steve Masterman, one of the UAF faculty members who helped secure the award, correctly described it as an economic development project, and that should be exactly how it is viewed.
Alaska does not suffer from a shortage of minerals. We have copper, zinc, graphite, cobalt, nickel, antimony, rare earth elements and dozens of other resources that make modern life possible. In fact, you can find 56 of the 60 minerals that the U.S. Geological Survey deems critical to national security and the economy right here at home.
What Alaska has too often lacked is the infrastructure, technology, investment and political determination needed to turn that mineral wealth into an opportunity of magnificent proportions.
The National Science Foundation selected UAF’s Critical Mineral Accelerator Engine as one of 12 new regional innovation programs across the country. The Alaska effort, announced Tuesday in Fairbanks, will begin with $15 million over two years and could receive as much as $160 million over a decade if it meets performance goals and Congress continues funding the program.
That is welcome federal support, but the money itself is not the real prize. The opportunity lies in what the university, the state, Alaska Native corporations, mining companies, communities and workforce groups can build with it.
The “engine” is intended to move earthen mineral discoveries into commercial use. It brings together advanced exploration techniques and mining, processing and purification technologies. Researchers plan to use artificial intelligence to help locate rare earth deposits and improve extraction methods. Moving past the excavation sites, this initiative intends to ground expansive industrial development in biotech, power infrastructure and sophisticated manufacturing, simultaneously fostering fresh career pathways for Alaskans living in rural regions.
Pipeline Paralysis
The Legislature failed to pass the conference committee report on HB 381, the Alaska LNG pipeline tax abatement bill, which led to many accusations about who was responsible for the bill failing.
HB 381 passed the Senate 11-8 but failed in the House on a 19-19 vote on July 16. Governor Mike Dunleavy has called a third special session beginning July 27.
The real issue was, and will continue to be the demand by some Senators to tax Hilcorp by extending the state corporate income tax to petroleum pass-through (“S”) corporations.
As described in Tim Bradner’s legislative digest:
“The add-on is basically political. Key senators have been gunning for Hilcorp for years and tacking the tax for Hilcorp onto the gas pipeline tax bill was seen as a way to do it. Unfortunately, the effort brought other entities like HEX, Armstrong and possibly others under the tax. This now seems the only issue in HB 381 that is controversial. The solution would seem to be to take out the S Corporation language out of the bill, but Senate supporters of the provision seem dug in.
Mr. Bradner also shared the following list of key items agreed to:
• The gas project would no longer be subject to the state 20-mill property tax on oil and gas facilities. A new tax based on the volume of gas moved, the “Alternative Volumetric Tax,” or AVT, would be substi tuted. This would be a substantial reduction of the tax burden for a period of time. In 10 years the AVT tax rate would be doubled. In 2060 it would be doubled again.
• The pipeline developer, Glenfarne, would make payments into a special state fund to help municipali ties along the pipeline route deal with impacts of construction.
• A new fund paid from 20% of natural gas royalty income to the state would be created to help Alaska communities not connected with the gas pipeline deal with high fuel oil costs. This kind of fund has long been sought by rural legislators. The current Power Cost Equalization fund deals with electricity costs but not fuel oil for heating of homes.
• A Project Labor Agreement will be concluded. This will encourage maximum employment of Alaska workers.
• Alaska LNG will sell gas to utilities during a “phase one” (pipeline only) for no more than $16 per thousand cubic feet. Gas prices in Southcentral Alaska are expected to approach this level soon due to declining Cook Inlet gas reserves.
• Alaska LNG will facilitate construction of a “spur” pipeline to get gas to Fairbanks. The cost of the spur line will be “rolled into” the overall cost of moving gas through the pipeline, so that Interior consumers do not pay for the spur line by themselves.
The effort to spoil a good bill that was supported by 35 house members and 9 Senate members has resulted in contradictory public policy:
The bill gives with one hand and takes with the other. It offers property tax relief while simultaneously increasing upstream income taxes.
It raises the cost of producing gas before a single new molecule is delivered to Alaskans.
In the meantime, the two Senators leading this effort have not offered a single proposal to address the Cook Inlet gas crisis, secure affordable and reliable energy for Alaskans, or grow Alaska’s economy. Their agenda seems to begin and end with taxes. At this point, if there were an Olympic event for proposing new taxes while ignoring the actual problem, they’d be standing on the podium.
Bullish analysts point to APA’s exposure to oil linked assets, including Suriname and Alaska exploration, as a key part of the long-term story that could support the stock if projects progress as planned.
Key Takeaways
Operational efficiencies and cost reductions in key regions are boosting margins, production, and positioning for sustained cash flow growth.
Strategic expansion, improved agreements, and disciplined financial management are enhancing resource potential, flexibility, and long-term shareholder returns.
The investment “is evidence of the execution readiness of Texas LNG,” and enables certain go-forward activities, including placement of purchase orders for certain critical equipment packages, said Vlad Bluzer, co-president of Texas LNG and partner at Glenfarne.
Glenfarne Group LLC has secured fresh capital to continue development and early construction works for the proposed Texas LNG plant to be constructed on a 625-acre site in the Port of Brownsville, Tex.
HPS Investment Partners, a part of BlackRock, agreed to the $500-million investment, which serves as one of the final steps required for the 4-million tonnes/year (tpy) project to reach final investment decision (FID), Glenfarne Group said in a release July 14. FID had most recently been expected in this year’s second quarter.
The capital also enables certain initiatives, including placement of purchase orders for certain critical equipment packages, said Vlad Bluzer, co-president of Texas LNG and partner at Glenfarne.
Specifically, the investment supports the recent limited notice to proceed (LNTP) granted to Kiewit, the lead engineering, procurement, and construction contractor, as part of the project’s executed lump-sum turnkey contract. The LNTP will include the issuance of critical purchase orders with key equipment suppliers, EPC-phase engineering activities, and geotechnical work.
In January, the Texas LNG project secured a 20-year offtake agreement with RWE, which moved the then-fully-subscribed project to financing.
Texas LNG is part of Glenfarne’s permitted North American LNG portfolio, which totals 32.8 million tpy of capacity under development across Alaska, Louisiana, and Texas.
Critical Mineral Accelerator could receive up to $160M over 10 years to advance mineral discovery, processing technologies and workforce development in Alaska
Alaska’s vast critical mineral endowment is serving as the foundation of a new federally backed innovation coalition aimed at transforming discoveries in the laboratory and field into technologies, businesses, and jobs.
On July 14, the U.S. National Science Foundation selected the University of Alaska Fairbanks-led Critical Mineral Accelerator Engine to receive $15 million over its first two years.
If the Alaska coalition meets a series of performance milestones, it could receive as much as $160 million from NSF over the coming decade.
“Our NSF Engine is built on the simple but ambitious idea that Alaska can lead the nation not only with the abundance of its critical mineral resources, but also in how we innovate, develop and deploy the technologies needed to produce them responsibly,” said Lee Ann Munk, a UAF Geophysical Institute researcher, geosciences professor and CEO of the Alaska engine.
The Alaska initiative, one of 12 new NSF Regional Innovation Engines announced across 20 states, will unite university researchers, Alaska Native organizations, mineral companies, workforce development groups, communities, national laboratories, and state and federal agencies.
“By bringing together researchers, Alaska Native organizations, industry, workforce partners, state and federal agencies, national laboratories and communities, we are creating an engine that accelerates discovery into action,” Munk said.
