Today’s Key Takeaways: AIDEA seeks RFP for seismic testing in ANWR. Dunleavy highlights South Korea need for AKLNG. Coal isn’t dead. Sullivan secures support for re-opening Adak naval base.
OIL:
Alaska development agency takes step toward drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Alex DeMarban, Anchorage Daily News, July 31, 2025
An Alaska development agency is seeking bids from companies to prepare for seismic testing that could one day lead to oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority is looking for a company to provide permitting support for a multiyear program to collect three-dimensional seismic data in the refuge’s coastal plain, according to newly released bid materials.
The agency owns seven, 10-year leases in the coastal plain, covering more than 350,000 acres. It purchased the leases during the first Trump administration in 2020, in hopes of partnering with oil exploration companies in the future.
The agency had previously attempted to conduct seismic work in the refuge. But that effort didn’t materialize. The Biden administration canceled the agency’s leases in 2023, though a judge this spring ruled that the cancellation was illegal.
GAS:
Governor Dunleavy touts Alaska’s pivotal role in the world at the Arctic Encounter Symposium
Alana Belle Tirado, Alaska’s News Source, July 31, 2025
Gov. Mike Dunleavy spoke Thursday about plans to build a liquified natural gas (LNG) pipeline in Alaska at the Arctic Encounter Symposium (AES).
Attendees to AES included ambassadors, military officials, and representatives from over 27 countries.
At the Symposium, Dunleavy spoke about the Alaska LNG project, which comes the day after President Donald Trump touted a $350 billion deal with South Korea.
Dunleavy has long been a strong supporter of the potential pipeline. Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski have also showed support.
Not everyone has been in favor of the LNG project though. Former President Joe Biden at one point created a pause to LNG export projects. The Trump Administration has since lifted that pause.
With a completed pipeline, Dunleavy hopes to export LNG across the globe, especially to places such as Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, and India.
“Because of electrification, because of A.I., because of digital coin mining, as well as other needs for electricity and clean energy, gas is being looked at worldwide as kind of the base fuel for a lot of our friends, especially in the Pacific,” Dunleavy said. “The gas line is going to be pivotal for the next 50 to 60 years for the state and the Pacific Rim.”
The Alaska LNG Project’s main developer is Glenfarne Group LLC. Dunleavy believes that Glenfarne will finalize announcements for the cost of the project by December 2025, which could lead Alaska to start pipe orders by January 2026. Latest estimates indicate that the project in its entirety will cost $44 billion dollars.
Dunleavy also mentioned that Alaska could become “the Panama of the North.”
“Because of our location on the globe, we’re nine hours by air to every industrialized place in the Northern Hemisphere,” Dunleavy said. “Our tremendous resources — whether it’s renewables, whether it’s wind, tidal, geothermal, biomass, oil, gas, you name it, Alaska’s got all of it. We just have to ensure that we manage it the right way.”
MINING:
Coal Isn’t Dead—It’s Just Catching Its Breath
Irina Slav, OilPrice.Com, July 31, 2025
- Despite global climate targets, coal consumption hit a record high in 2024.
- Over 850 new coal mines are planned worldwide, with China leading both green energy and coal expansion.
- Countries like Germany and the U.S. are falling back on coal amid wind and gas shortfalls.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of the Interior did something that just a couple of years ago would have been unthinkable. It permitted a coal mine in Tennessee. New coal mines are being approved around the world despite calls for a ban on the commodity. And this might yet intensify.
Last year saw the slowest growth in global coal mine capacity since 2014, energy transition advocacy Global Energy Monitor reported earlier this week. Total new capacity that opened last year stood at 105 million tons, which was a 46% decline from the previous year. This certainly does not sound like a growth spurt is on the way, but it may well be. Because coal miners and governments are planning a lot more coal capacity additions.
Per Global Energy Monitor, there are plans in place for 850 new coal mines globally, including existing mine expansions, extensions, and recommissioning. Capacity under development globally from these projects amounts to 2.27 billion tons annually—and half of it is in China. That would be the same China that is the world leader in wind and solar capacity, and that also happened to consume 56% of the world’s coal in 2024. The same China that, together with India and the rest of Asia, drove global coal demand to a record high in the same year.
POLITICS:
Navy chief confirmed after Alaska senator drops last-minute block
Jack Detsch, Connor O’Brien, Joe Gould and Paul McLeary, Politico, July 31, 2025
Dan Sullivan had planned to hold Adm. Daryl Caudle’s nomination until the Pentagon agreed to reopen a long-shuttered military base.
Sen. Dan Sullivan backed off a surprise blockade of the Navy’s top officer late Thursday, allowing the Senate to confirm Adm. Daryl Caudle and giving the service a permanent military leader for the first time in five months.
The Alaska Republican had placed a hold earlier in the day on Caudle’s confirmation — the otherwise noncontroversial nominee for the chief of naval operations — over the senator’s desire to reopen a naval air station in his home state, according to four people familiar with the matter.
The move threatened to leave the service without a confirmed leader as the Senate barrels toward its August recess, and just as the Navy is considering winnowing its top-level positions.
The last-minute drama had nothing to do with Caudle, whose confirmation seemed virtually assured. Sullivan, a relentless booster for his home state, had objected to a speedy confirmation to put pressure on the Pentagon to reopen the long-shuttered Adak Naval Air Station, located in the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska. The Defense Department closed the base after the Cold War.
But Sullivan dropped his objection by Thursday evening, his office said, after a positive discussion with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“Sen. Sullivan had a very constructive conversation with the secretary of Defense, with whom he has a strong relationship,” Amanda Coyne, a Sullivan spokesperson, said in a statement. “After the conversation, Sen. Sullivan lifted his hold on Adm. Caudle.”
Neither Sullivan’s office nor the Defense Department said whether they made a deal. But Sullivan has long argued for expanding the U.S. military presence around Alaska as Russian and Chinese ramp up their activity in the Arctic. And he has recently obtained military commanders’ endorsements for reopening Adak.
The Pentagon initially referred queries to the White House. The White House, in a statement on Sullivan’s hold, said President Donald Trump has “repeatedly stressed the importance of the Senate quickly confirming all of his nominees.”