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Obama Limits on Alaskan Oil Threaten Pipeline Flow, Senator Says

(Bloomberg) — Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said the Obama administration’s restrictions on oil production in her state threatens to dry up supplies that could flow through the trans-Alaska pipeline. President Barack Obama has proposed declaring 12 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness, limiting offshore leasing in Alaska’s Beaufort and Chukchi Seas and block drilling in some portions of the National Petroleum Reserve. Those steps, announced Jan. 25, put much of the state off limits to new oil production, Murkowski said Tuesday. “The actions of this administration seem destined to shut down our trans-Alaska pipeline, weaken our economy, forcing our state to make steep budget cuts and really violating the promises that were made to us at statehood and since then,” Murkowski told Interior Secretary Sally Jewell at a hearing on the department’s budget. “As an energy producing state, this is what we do.” Without […]

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Arctic oil can wait, advocacy group says

Proposals for safe energy work in arctic U.S. waters stirs debate from environmental and industry circles. Photo by longtaildog/Shutterstock The Interior Department last week unveiled seven proposals meant to enhance regulations governing oil and gas operations on the arctic shelf of the United States. The new rules would require companies to adopt oil spill response plans suitable for the arctic environment and have the ability to drill a relief well in the event of a catastrophe like the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, among others. The government said the proposals follow an examination of arctic operations carried out by Dutch energy company Shell off the coast of Alaska in 2012. Michael LeVine, a senior counsel for advocacy group Oceana, said in response to email questions the federal government should start over with arctic energy regulations. "Good choices about whether to allow these activities and, if so, […]

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US Interior unveils Arctic oil, gas drilling regulations

Washington (Platts)–20Feb2015/359 pm EST/2059 GMT The Obama administration Friday issued proposed Arctic-specific drilling regulations that will apply to potential exploration operations in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. The regulations include new requirements for operators to submit "region-specific" response plans for oil spills, have "prompt access" to source control and containment equipment, and have a separate relief rig available in case well control is lost, the Department of Interior said. "If there were to be an uncontrolled well event, we want to make sure that the well can be secured within the drilling season," Brian Salerno, director of Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, said during a conference call. That requirement was quickly criticized by industry. "Other equipment and methods, such as a capping stack, can be used to achieve the same season relief with equal or higher levels of safety and environmental protection," said Eric Milito, the American […]

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Arctic Oil Drillers Face Tighter U.S. Rules to Stop Spills

(Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc and any oil drilling company that prospects in the Arctic Ocean must boost safety practices to prevent spills in the frigid and often hostile waters or mitigate the impact, U.S. regulators proposed Friday. The Interior Department’s first Arctic-specific drilling rules respond to mishaps that plagued Shell as it sought oil north of Alaska three years ago. As the White House considered the plan, Shell said the requirements might make it too expensive to invest in the isolated but energy-rich waters. “The Arctic region is known for its challenging environmental conditions, geographic remoteness and relative lack of existing infrastructure,” according to the proposal from the department’s offshore safety agency. There is a “need to develop additional measures specifically tailored to the operational and environmental conditions of the Arctic.” Shell has said it wants to resume exploration when the weather gets warmer this year after […]

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Feds may open arctic Alaska to drillers

Shell signs two-year commitment to lease Seattle port for drilling program after Washington hints at opening parts of Alaskan waters for exploration. Photo: Don Wilson/Port of Seattle. The federal government published its final environmental impact statement on a lease plan first unveiled in 2008. The lease was tied in up the court system amid complaints about the extent of environmental vetting. "We remain committed to taking a thoughtful and balanced approach to oil and gas leasing and exploration in this unique, sensitive and often challenging environment," Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in a statement. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled early last year the Interior Department did not properly evaluate the scale of oil production that could result in the Chukchi Sea when it sold more than $2.6 billion in development leases in the environmentally sensitive area in 2008. The ruling stemmed from a […]

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Exxon moves ahead with Alaska LNG project

Exxon submits draft reports on Alaska gas facility after Gov. Bill Walker drops lawsuit related to Point Thomson field development. Photo courtesy Gov. Bill Walker’s office Exxon Mobil said it submitted a draft environmental report to federal regulators for a $500 million liquefied natural gas project in Alaska. A preliminary engineering and design phase for the Alaska LNG project is under way. Steve Butt, Exxon’s project executive, said submitting a draft report to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission sets the permitting process in motion. "These draft documents, known as resource reports, allow Alaska stakeholders to engage early in the regulatory process, so potential environmental and socioeconomic issues and opportunities can be proactively identified and managed," he said in a Wednesday statement. The Alaska LNG project has foundations in production from Prudhoe Bay and Point Thomson fields in the state, which combine for an average 3.5 billion cubic feet of […]

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Arctic Oil On Life Support

Oil companies have eyed the Arctic for years. With an estimated 90 billion barrels of oil lying north of the Arctic Circle, the circumpolar north is arguably the last corner of the globe that is still almost entirely unexplored. As drilling technology advances, conventional oil reserves become harder to find, and climate change contributes to melting sea ice, the Arctic has moved up on the list of priorities in oil company board rooms. That had companies moving north – Royal Dutch Shell off the coast of Alaska, Statoil in the Norwegian Arctic, and ExxonMobil in conjunction with Russia’s Rosneft in the Russian far north. But achieving the goals of tapping the extensive oil reserves in the Arctic has been much harder than previously thought. Shell’s mishaps have been well-documented. The Anglo-Dutch company failed to achieve permits on time, had its drill ships run aground , and saw its oil […]

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Obama Moves to Put Much of Refuge Off Limits to Drilling

President Barack Obama ’s call to restrict oil exploration on 12 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge probably won’t have much practical impact for an area already off-limits to drillers, though it’s created a new fault line with the Republican-led Congress. The White House on Sunday said it would ask Congress to designate “core areas” of the 19.8 million-acre refuge as wilderness, including its 1.5 million-acre coastal plain that geologists believe lies atop a rich oil reserve. “Designating vast areas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness reflects the significance this landscape holds for America and its wildlife,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in the statement. The practical impact is slight because Republicans, who now control both chambers of Congress, voiced immediate opposition. And oil and gas production is already prohibited in the Arctic refuge. It does add to the list of energy issues that the […]

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Murkowski: Obama’s Alaska move an act of war

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, says proposal to set aside more state acreage as a wilderness reserve is an act of war on a state that depends on oil revenue. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 (UPI) — The Obama administration has declared war on the economic future of Alaska by proposing new acreage as protected wilderness, congressional leaders said. The White House announced plans Sunday to set as 12 million of the 19 million acres in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska as protected wilderness . U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski , R-Alaska, chairwoman of the Senate Energy Committee, said in a statement President Barack Obama launched an assault on the health of the state’s economy with the policy recommendation. "It’s clear this administration does not care about us, and sees us as nothing but a territory," she said in a statement. "We will fight back with every […]

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Obama Moves to Put Much of Refuge Off Limits to Drilling

President Barack Obama ’s call to restrict oil exploration on 12 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge probably won’t have much practical impact for an area already off-limits to drillers, though it’s created a new fault line with the Republican-led Congress. The White House on Sunday said it would ask Congress to designate “core areas” of the 19.8 million-acre refuge as wilderness, including its 1.5 million-acre coastal plain that geologists believe lies atop a rich oil reserve. “Designating vast areas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness reflects the significance this landscape holds for America and its wildlife,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in the statement. The practical impact is slight because Republicans, who now control both chambers of Congress, voiced immediate opposition. And oil and gas production is already prohibited in the Arctic refuge. It does add to the list of energy issues that the […]

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Obama Administration Moves to Block Drilling in Parts of Alaska

ENLARGE The Hulahula River Canyon in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska in the summer of 2010. Photo: AlaskaStock/Corbis The Obama administration is moving this week to designate areas of Alaska off limits to oil and natural gas drilling in its latest effort to bolster its environmental legacy. The Interior Department announced on Sunday that it was proposing to preserve as wilderness nearly 13 million acres of land in the 19.8 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, including 1.5 million acres of coastal plains that is believed to have rich oil and natural gas resources. Later this week, the department also is slated to propose a draft offshore leasing plan that is expected to include more limits on future oil and gas production in Alaska. The efforts are drawing a strong rebuke from congressional Republicans. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) vowed to fight the administration’s moves from her positions […]

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Arctic Explorers Retreat From Hostile Waters With Oil Prices Low

When Statoil ASA (STL) acquired the last of three licenses off Greenland ’s west coast in January 2012, oil at more than $110 a barrel made exploring the iceberg-ridden waters an attractive proposition. Less than two years later, the price of oil had been cut by almost half and Norway’s Statoil, the world’s most active offshore Arctic explorer in 2014, relinquished its interest in all three licenses in December without drilling a single well, Knut Rostad, a spokesman for the state-controlled company, said by e-mail. Statoil’s decision shows how the plunge in oil, with Brent crude trading at about $45 a barrel, has dealt another blow to companies and governments hoping to tap the largely unexplored Arctic. That threatens to demote the importance of a region already challenged by high costs, environmental concerns, technological obstacles and, in the case of Russia , international sanctions. “At $50, it just doesn’t […]

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Alaska governor orders halt to state funds for alternate North Slope natural gas pipeline

Anchorage (Platts)–30Dec2014/302 pm EST/2002 GMT Alaska Governor Bill Walker ordered a halt to state funds being spent on a state-led North Slope natural gas pipeline as a budget contingency, a spokesman for the Alaska Gasline Development Corp said Tuesday. The order affects unencumbered state funds appropriated for a 36-inch pipeline being planned by the state gas corporation as a backup in case an industry-led 42-inch pipeline plan associated with a large LNG export project does not proceed, AGDC spokesman Miles Baker said. "The governor’s order does not affect state funds being spent in support of the larger industry-led project in which the state is a partner," Baker said. The state’s gas corporation is also the entity participating with North Slope producers BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil and pipeline company TransCanada in the larger project, he said. Walker’s action affects several other large state-funded projects and was taken in view of […]

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Russia may scrap arctic oil ambitions

Russian oil company Rosneft says it may be time to reconsider its ambitions in the arctic UPI/Shutterstock/Marco Varro MOSCOW, Dec. 22 (UPI) — Russian oil company Rosneft said Monday it may have to postpone its drilling program in the arctic temporarily, but doesn’t rule out future operations. Nikolai Malyshev, Rosneft’s deputy director for operations on the Russian continental shelf, said the company was rethinking its current programs because of a lack of viable partners. "Maybe, due to the deterioration of the situation, we will somehow adjust our work schedule now," he said. "Rosneft operates and will continue its operations in the Arctic." U.S. energy company Exxon Mobil has a partnership with Russian oil company Rosneft for work in the arctic waters of Russia. With Western sanctions impeding developments, the Russian government has placed a greater emphasis on domestic exploitation of arctic reserves . Western powers have sanctioned the Russian […]

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Energy group questions Bristol Bay moratorium

Energy group on Alaska questions why White House placed moratorium on oil and gas work in Bristol Bay. UPI/Charly Hengen, U.S. Coast Guard ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Dec. 17 (UPI) — Alaskan energy producers expressed dismay over a presidential decision to put the Bristol Bay off limits, though environmentalists lauded its stewardship. President Barack Obama issued a declaration that puts the Bristol Bay out of reach of oil and natural gas producers indefinitely. "This withdrawal prevents consideration of this area for any oil or gas leasing for purposes of exploration, development, or production," Tuesday’s declaration read. Kara Moriarty, president and chief executive officer at the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, said she questioned the action’s wisdom given its indefinite term limit . "Although it might not be prudent today to consider oil and gas leasing in Bristol Bay, it is unclear why President Obama would choose to address this issue in […]

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Chevron Suspends Arctic Offshore Drilling Program in Canada ‘Indefinitely’

CALGARY— Chevron Corp. told Canadian regulators Wednesday that it has “indefinitely” suspended plans to drill for oil in Arctic waters, citing uncertainty over the outlook for crude prices. The move is the latest sign that a glut in crude oil is impacting major energy companies’ exploration and production programs. The Arctic holds billions of barrels of untapped oil reserves, but offshore-drilling costs there are among the highest in the world due to its remote location and severe weather. Chevron’s Canadian unit has pursued a test well drilling program in the Beaufort Sea in recent years, but said in a letter to Canada’s National Energy Board that it would put that project “on hold indefinitely” due to “the level of economic uncertainty in the industry.” Chevron confirmed the decision, noting all of its projects “must be competitive in our global exploration portfolio.” A 50% drop in oil prices since June […]

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Shale Oil vs. Arctic Drilling

4725 Votes Last month, the suits over at Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) put on their sad faces and went to the White House to ask for more time to burn through another billion or two. I tell ya, these guys are gluttons for punishment. After eight years and more than $6 billion, Shell has come up completely empty on its promise to bring a bounty of Arctic crude to market from the Chukchi Sea. The plan to tap this Arctic flow was devised more than a decade ago — before the U.S. was swimming in shale oil and before consumption rates started falling. Certainly I don’t fault management for moving aggressively on black treasure in the Arctic. At the time, it made a lot of sense. But today, with $80 crude, a boom in domestic oil and gas production, and little chance of ever successfully producing anything more than losses in […]

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Shell Seeks 5 More Years for Arctic Oil Drilling Drive

Print Back to story Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) is asking the Obama administration for five more years to explore for oil off Alaska’s coast, saying set backs and legal delays may push the start of drilling past the 2017 expiration of some leases. Shell, which has spent eight years and $6 billion to search for oil in the Arctic’s Beaufort and Chukchi seas, said in letter to the Interior Department that “prudent” exploration before leases expire is now “severely challenged.” “Despite Shell’s best efforts and demonstrated diligence, circumstances beyond Shell’s control have prevented, and are continuing to prevent, Shell from completing even the first exploration well in either area,” Peter Slaiby, vice president of Shell Alaska, wrote to the regional office of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Shell’s plans to produce oil in the Arctic were set back in late 2012 by mishaps involving a drilling […]

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Rosneft claims united oil win in arctic

Russian oil company Rosneft announces oil find in arctic reaches of Kara Sea. UPI/Jeremy Potter/NOAA MOSCOW, Sept. 29 (UPI) — Russian oil company Rosneft said the discovery of oil in an arctic license area came as the result of a united effort with its Western energy partners. Rosneft estimates the discovery at an area in the Prinovozemelskiy-1 license area in the Kara Sea holds at least 700 million barrels of oil. "This is an outstanding result of the first exploratory drilling on a completely new offshore field," Rosneft Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin said in a statement Saturday. "This is our united victory; it was achieved thanks to our friends and partners from ExxonMobil, Nord Atlantic Drilling, Schlumberger, Halliburton, Weatherford, Baker Hughes, [and others]." The company said the entire area could hold as much as 87 billion barrels of oil. Greenpeace activists this year trailed some of the international […]

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Russia Oil Chief Says Sanctions No Bar to Arctic Drilling

The most powerful man in Russia’s oil industry says U.S. sanctions won’t prevent the development of discoveries in the Arctic Ocean. Igor Sechin, chief executive officer of state oil producer OAO Rosneft (ROSN) and a long-time ally of President Vladimir Putin, spent two days traveling by plane, ship and helicopter last week to announce a billion-barrel crude strike in the iceberg-prone Kara Sea region of Russia’s Arctic Ocean. “We will continue working no matter what,” Sechin said in an interview on board a polar research vessel as he prepared to unveil the find he named Victory. “We will plan the work for next season. As I said, now we’ve drilled only the first structure — at Universitetskaya. There are more than 30.” But Sechin has a problem. The first well, the costliest yet drilled in Russia, relied on money and expertise from Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) , Rosneft’s partner […]

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Arctic oil bound for Europe, Gazprom Neft says

MOSCOW, Sept. 22 (UPI) — Gazprom Neft Gazprom Neft confirmed a tanker filled with 200,000 barrels of oil was shipped to markets in northwest Europe last week. It was the second tanker of oil delivered from the Novoportovskoye field at the Yamal Peninsula. Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Russian energy company Gazprom, said the oil is designated as Novy Port, which it said was "superior" in quality to the global benchmark, Brent. "A third tanker is currently being prepared for shipment," the company said in a statement. Changes in global weather patterns are leaving parts of the arctic region ice-free for longer periods of time. Gazprom Neft said it confirmed in 2011 that using a nuclear-powered icebreaker would facilitate transportation of oil from the port on the northern peninsula, where pipeline infrastructure is lacking. Any technology used to build a pipeline would "have minimal impact on the environment," […]

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Exxon Said to Halt Arctic Oil Well Drilling on Sanctions

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) halted drilling on an offshore oil well intended as the first step in unlocking billions of barrels of crude in Russia ’s remote Arctic, according to people familiar with the project. Work stopped just a few days after the U.S. and European Union barred companies from helping Russia exploit Arctic, deep-water or shale- oil fields , said three people with knowledge of the rig’s operations who asked not to be named since they weren’t authorized to speak about the project. The U.S. sanctions, meant to punish Russia for escalating tensions in Ukraine, gave American companies until Sept. 26 to stop all restricted drilling and testing services. Exxon and Seadrill Ltd. (SDRL) ’s North Atlantic Drilling (NADL) unit are under the gun to finish or temporarily seal the $700 million well off Russia’s northern coast before the sanctions deadline, said Chris Kettenmann, chief energy strategist at […]

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Gazprom Neft marks arctic milestone

MOSCOW, Sept. 15 (UPI) — Russian oil company Gazprom Neft said Monday it reached a milestone with the production of its 1 millionth barrel of oil from the arctic Prirazlomnoye field. Gazprom Neft Board Chairman Alexander Dyukov said his is the first Russian company to pull oil from the Russian arctic shelf . "The production of the millionth barrel of oil at the Prirazlomnoye field is a milestone and further proof of the consistent development of the project and its final transition into full-scale development," he said in a statement. "Gazprom Neft plays a leading role in developing oil deposits on the Arctic shelf and we can build on this experience for new Arctic projects in the future." The company expects 2.2 million barrels worth of production from Prirazlomnoye during the first full year of development. A tanker with 1 million barrels worth of storage capacity is set to […]

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Shell keeps Alaskan arctic options open

"We continue to take a methodical approach to this exploration phase and will only proceed with a program that meets the conditions necessary to proceed safely and responsibly," a spokesman said in a statement emailed to UPI. The U.S. Coast Guard in April published a 152-page report on Shell’s operations in Alaska . Shell’s drillship Kulluk struck ground off the Alaskan coast in 2012, and the Coast Guard blamed harsh winter conditions and the company’s efforts to escape Alaskan tax laws for the incident. Kulluk’s grounding off the Alaskan coast followed a 2012 exploration season in the arctic waters of Alaska that was complicated by equipment failures. The company in January said it was suspending its efforts to explore Alaskan waters because of costs and court challenges to its exploration campaign. Shell said it submitted revisions to an already-approved plan for the Chukchi Sea to the Bureau of Ocean […]

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Russia’s Rosneft grabs Norwegian drilling assets

"This deal will allow Rosneft to acquire new capabilities in the sphere of oilfield services, by engaging the best professionals, with unique expertise in operations in harsh climate conditions," Rosneft Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin said in a statement Friday. Rosneft was the target of sanctions imposed by Western powers in response to Russia’s stance on crises in Ukraine. Sechin himself was sanctioned by the U.S. government. Nevertheless, the Russian oil company has signed a string of agreements with its international counterparts, including an Aug. 1 deal to acquire Venezuelan assets from oil services company Weatherford International. Last week, Rosneft announced it started an exploration program in the arctic waters of the Barents Sea with Norwegian energy company Statoil. On the latest deal, Sechin said Rosneft and its Norwegian partners are creating an international partnership in drilling services. "The company will notably strengthen its positions on the market of […]

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Russia's Rosneft grabs Norwegian drilling assets

"This deal will allow Rosneft to acquire new capabilities in the sphere of oilfield services, by engaging the best professionals, with unique expertise in operations in harsh climate conditions," Rosneft Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin said in a statement Friday. Rosneft was the target of sanctions imposed by Western powers in response to Russia’s stance on crises in Ukraine. Sechin himself was sanctioned by the U.S. government. Nevertheless, the Russian oil company has signed a string of agreements with its international counterparts, including an Aug. 1 deal to acquire Venezuelan assets from oil services company Weatherford International. Last week, Rosneft announced it started an exploration program in the arctic waters of the Barents Sea with Norwegian energy company Statoil. On the latest deal, Sechin said Rosneft and its Norwegian partners are creating an international partnership in drilling services. "The company will notably strengthen its positions on the market of […]

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Gazprom Neft readies arctic oil shipments

The company said it would ship a low sulfur blend of crude oil , dubbed Novy Port, from the field bearing its name from the Yamal peninsula. "A sea tanker will deliver the oil to Europe in September and over 80,000 tons of the new Novy Port oil classification are scheduled to be delivered from the field by two tankers during the 2014 ice-free season," the company said in a statement. Changes in global weather patterns are leaving parts of the arctic region ice-free for longer periods of time. Gazprom Neft said it confirmed in 2011 that using a nuclear-powered icebreaker would facilitate transportation of oil from the port on the northern peninsula, where pipeline infrastructure is lacking. When ice is heavy, the company said it would ship oil by rail to a northern rail terminal for transportation to the regional market until an export terminal is completed in […]

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A New Frontier for Fracking: Drilling Near the Arctic Circle

Hydraulic fracturing is about to move into the Canadian Arctic, with companies exploring the region’s rich shale oil deposits. But many indigenous people and conservationists have serious concerns about the impact of fracking in more fragile northern environments. Among the dozens of rivers that flow unfettered through the Canadian North, the Natla and the Keele may be the most picturesque and culturally important. They are especially significant to the Dene people of the Sahtu region, which straddles the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories. Both of the rivers flow crystal clear out of the Mackenzie Mountains along the Yukon/Northwest Territories border before coming together in their final course to the Mackenzie River. Conoco-Phillips fracking project in Sahtu Photo credit: Conoco-Phillips. A Conoco-Phillips shale oil fracking site in the Sahtu region of Canada’s Northwest Territories. For hundreds — if not thousands — of years, the Mountain Dene people have been […]

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Norway Oil Services See Russia Sanctions Risking Arctic Push

Aker Solutions ASA (AKSO) , the offshore engineering company controlled by billionaire Kjell Inge Roekke, could miss opportunities to expand into Russia ’s Arctic region if Europe and the U.S. uphold sanctions on the country. “If the political situation continues and the sanctions are long-term, they will mean lost market opportunities,” Chairman Oeyvind Eriksen said in Oslo yesterday. While the Fornebu, Norway-based company isn’t currently involved in any large projects in Russia, it’s “ready to consider” opportunities when the restrictions are lifted, he said. Aker Solutions , which has experience of the Arctic through projects it’s worked on off Norway , is seeking to expand into new markets as the company splits to focus on its subsea and engineering businesses to cut costs and improve shareholder returns. The company’s owners, which include Roekke’s investment company Aker ASA (AKER) and the Norwegian state, approved the split at a meeting in […]

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Kara Sea reserves unrivaled, Rosneft says

| License Photo Operations with Exxon Mobil in the arctic waters of the Kara Sea should be on par with those in North America or Saudi Arabia, Russian oil company Rosneft said. Rosneft announced it started work with Exxon in the northern region that it said would help address international energy security concerns. "Comparing this project in terms of a resource base to other projects, we can say for sure that it is highly competitive with the largest resources, such as the resource base of Saudi Arabia, and will by far surpass the capacities of the Gulf of Mexico Shelf, Alaska and Canada," Rosneft Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin said Saturday. Rosneft positioned the West Alpha rig , provided by Norwegian company North Atlantic Drilling, at the East Prinovozemelskiy-1 license area in the Kara Sea. The company said the entire area could hold as much as 87 billion barrels […]

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Greenpeace claims edge over Statoil

A decision by Statoil to end a campaign in the arctic waters of the Barents Sea shows it never should have drilled there in the first place, Greenpeace said. Norwegian energy company Statoil said it ended its campaign in the frontier Hoop area of the Barents Sea. Small volumes of hydrocarbons were encountered, but nothing in the way of a commercial discovery. The drilling program was the target of a Greenpeace protest aimed at highlighting the risks of operating in the pristine arctic environment. The Hoop reserve area is near Bear Island, a unique island ecosystem that Greenpeace said would be spoiled should a spill occur in the area. Truls Gulowsen, director of the Norwegian branch of Greenpeace, said dry wells in the Hoop area suggest it’s the arctic environment itself that’s rejecting the presence of oil companies like Statoil. "The licenses should never have been awarded in the […]

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U.S. considers arctic Alaska lease for 2017

The U.S. government said it was calling for information about the oil and natural gas resource potential in the Beaufort Sea off the northern coast of Alaska. The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it wanted to find out more about the oil and gas that could lie in the area as it plans a possible lease sale for 2017. In April, Royal Dutch Shell said that, as traditional oil and gas reserves decline, oil companies will have to look to more challenging locations to keep up with global energy demand. Shell in January suspended efforts to explore Alaskan waters because of costs and court challenges to its exploration campaign. The company maintained the energy potential offshore Alaska may be "enormous." Acting BOEM Director Walter Cruikshank said the federal government is committed to stepping lightly in the northern arctic region off the Alaskan coast. "There […]

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WWF: Arctic Oil Well Blowout Could Spread More Than 1,000 Km

CALGARY, Alberta, July 25 (Reuters) – Oil from a spill or oil well blowout in the Arctic waters of Canada’s Beaufort Sea could easily become trapped in sea ice and potentially spread more than 1,000 kilometres to the west coast of Alaska, a World Wildlife Fund study showed on Friday. The WWF contracted RPS Applied Science Associates to model 22 different oil spill scenarios and map the spread of the oil, potential impact on the water and shoreline, and interaction with sea ice, wildlife and the surrounding ecology. Types of oil spills analysed included shipping spills, shallow-water blowouts and deep-water blowouts. The BP Plc Macondo oil well rupture in 2010 that unleashed more than four million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico was a deep-water blowout. The remote Beaufort Sea is a section of the Arctic Ocean that spans the Canada-U.S. border. It comprises about 476,000 square […]

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Shipping Firms to Add Arctic LNG Route

Shipping companies in China and Japan said they would start a regular service to carry Siberian natural gas across the Arctic Ocean to East Asia, showing how Asian demand for the fuel is reshaping global shipping routes. Wednesday’s announcement by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. and China Shipping Development Co. offered new details of how liquefied natural gas will get from one of the remotest locations on earth— the $27 billion Yamal LNG facility being developed in western Siberia—to urban areas in China and Japan. China Shipping Development said its joint venture with Mitsui O.S.K. would spend $932 million on three LNG carriers equipped with ice breakers, to be built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. of South Korea. Service is set to begin as soon as 2018. Once virtually impassable, the Arctic Ocean is now attracting interest as a shipping route because global warming has reduced the ice […]

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Gazprom Neft readies for arctic drilling

Russian energy company said it plans to conduct drilling operations in the northern Pechora Sea during the ice-free months of 2014. The company said a drilling platform was delivered to the Dolginskoye field in the arctic waters of the Pechora Sea. "An exploration well will be drilled from the platform during the ice-free months of 2014 to further investigate the field’s geological structure and prepare it for full-scale development," the company said in a statement Monday. Changing weather patterns are leaving parts of the arctic region ice-free for longer periods of time, giving energy companies more time to try to exploit the estimated 90 billion barrels of undiscovered oil and 1.6 quadrillion cubic feet of undiscovered natural gas thought to lie beneath the arctic waters. Gazprom Neft is the oil arm of the Russian energy company Gazprom, which was the target of Greenpeace demonstrations against arctic […]

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US BOEM aims for revised Chukchi Sea analysis in spring

The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management told a US District Court in Alaska on Friday it will have a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the 2008 Chukchi Sea lease sale prepared by August and publication of a Final EIS by February. Under the schedule the final action, publication of the record of decision, would occur in March. Whether Shell would have time to mobilize for a 2015 summer drilling season in the Arctic is uncertain, however. "We are considering the implications of the timeline presented in the status report and continue to work with the Department of Interior. We have made no decisions on the timing for our future exploration plans offshore Alaska," Shell spokeswoman Meg Baldino said Tuesday in a statement. Shell has been exploring in the region and hopes to resume drilling in 2015 on leases the company acquired in the 2008 lease sale. The […]

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Oil Giants Set Their Sights on Arctic Waters

Shell stirred controversy with its 2012 drilling program in the Chukchi Sea off northwest Alaska, the first there in more than two decades. Big oil is eager for another crack at drilling in the oil- and gas-rich Arctic offshore. But that renewed interest comes amid intense scrutiny in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Encouraged by higher crude prices, better technology and steep costs that pose barriers to entry for all but the deepest pockets, heavyweights such as PLC, Chevron Corp. , ConocoPhillips , Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC have spent billions of dollars to snap up offshore Arctic leases. The Arctic holds about one-third of the world’s untapped natural gas and 13% of as yet undiscovered crude, or roughly 90 billion barrels of oil, and more than three-quarters of those deposits are offshore, according to U.S. Geological […]

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Exxon Unit in Canada Seeks Deep Arctic Well

Exxon Mobil Corp.’s Canadian subsidiary is considering plans for what would be the deepest offshore well ever drilled in the Arctic, increasing some environmentalists’ concerns about how the company would respond to a blowout. Imperial Oil Ltd. submitted a project description last September to Canadian regulators for a proposed exploratory well so deep that it would likely take two to four years to complete. The well could extend about 6 miles beneath the floor of the Beaufort Sea, according to a study commissioned by the Pew Charitable Trusts, an environmental watchdog. Imperial’s filing didn’t specify a well depth, but the unpublished Pew study, prepared by a third-party engineering consultant, calculated it as roughly 34,000 feet. "These wells may be drilled over 6 miles deep, and will need complex well casing, cementing and drilling plans to address the technical challenges of drilling deep high pressure wells," the report said. […]

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Rosneft sees huge potential in arctic resources

Taking advantage of the resource potential in the Russian arctic is one of the top priorities for oil company Rosneft, President Igor Sechin said. The board of directors at Rosneft said Monday they were ready to start working in the arctic waters of Russia through a joint effort with U.S. energy company Exxon Mobil. Sechin said in an announcement coinciding with the release of the company’s first-quarter financial report that arctic exploration was an integral part of Rosneft’s strategy for the year. "Monetization of Russia’s enormous resource potential in the offshore arctic is the key priority for the company," he said in a statement Wednesday. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the arctic holds 13 percent, or about 90 billion barrels, of the world’s undiscovered oil reserves and 1.6 quadrillion cubic feet, or about 30 percent, of the world’s undiscovered natural gas. Sechin said exploration […]

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Wrong Type of Ice Hampers the Northern Sea Route

Energy giants SA, Russia’s OAO Novatec and China National Petroleum Co. are investing $27 billion to develop Yamal LNG, one of the world’s biggest gas export facilities deep inside the Arctic Circle in western Siberia. Yamal, "the end of the earth," in the local Nenets language, will require building LNG tankers powerful enough to smash through heavy ice. But engineers still haven’t figured out how to evacuate crew from those tankers in an emergency—underscoring how some of the industry’s trickiest obstacles in the Arctic are also some of the most basic. As warming seas melt arctic ice, shipping executives have been exploring the prospect of more commercial voyages through once-impassable waters. One of the most promising new thoroughfares is the Northern Sea Route, a passage through one of Russia’s northernmost archipelagoes. During a few warm months of each year, the route is now increasingly passable to ship traffic. Traversing […]

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Arctic Oil Still Seen Decades Away as Producers Balk at Costs

Lundin Petroleum AB (LUPE) , the Swedish explorer focused on Norway , said there won’t be any oil production in the ice-filled waters of the Arctic for at least 15 years because of technical and logistical challenges. “I don’t think we’ll see any oil production in the Arctic any time soon — probably not this decade and not the next,” Chairman Ian Lundin said in a Feb. 20 interview in Stockholm. “The commercial challenges are too big.” The Arctic holds 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered natural gas reserves and 13 percent of its undiscovered oil, according to U.S. Geological Survey estimates. Still, exploration of the Arctic ocean floor, where 84 percent of these resources are thought to be trapped, has suffered setbacks in recent years. Royal Dutch Shell Plc. (RDSA) , Europe ’s biggest oil company, in January again halted drilling plans off Alaska after a court ruled […]

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Putin orders Russian military to boost Arctic presence

Russian President Vladimir Putin has told his military leadership they should build up their forces in the Arctic as a priority. Commending the recent restoration of an airfield in the region, he said Russia needed to use every means to protect its national interests in the region. He was speaking after Canada announced plans to claim the continental shelf under the North Pole. Russia and Denmark also lay claim to parts of the resource-rich shelf. Mr Putin has spoken about the need to increase Russia’s military capacity in the Arctic before but this was one of his most […]

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Canada files to define outer limits of expanded Atlantic continental shelf; preliminary filing on Arctic, targeting North Pole

Canada files to define outer limits of expanded Atlantic continental shelf; preliminary filing on Arctic, targeting North Pole Canada Overview of the outer limits of the expanded Canadian continental shelf in the Atlantic Ocean. Click to enlarge. On 6 December, Canada filed a submission to define the outer limits of its expanded continental shelf area in the Atlantic Ocean with the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf . At the same time, Canada also filed preliminary information concerning the expanded outer limits of its continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean, which could include the North Pole. In a news conference on the submission, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said that Canada will indeed […]

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US Eyes Increase In Arctic Operations

The U.S. military is looking for ways to expand operations in the vast waters of the Arctic as melting ice caps open sea lanes and other nations such as Russia compete for the lucrative oil and gas deposits. But the effort will take money and resources to fill the broad gaps in satellite and communications coverage, add deep-water ports and buy more ships that can withstand the frigid waters or break through the ice. There are no cost or budget estimates yet. But by the end of this year, the Navy will complete plans that lay out what the U.S. needs to do to increase communications, harden ships and negotiate international agreements so that nations will be able to track traffic in the Arctic and conduct search-and-rescue missions when needed. En route to a security conference here […]

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Shell moves to resume Arctic drilling

Arctic Shell Royal Dutch Shell on Wednesday filed a formal exploration plan for the Arctic waters north of Alaska, marking an important step forward for its ambition to drill next summer what will be the world’s most closely watched oil well. The plan for multiple wells in the Chukchi Sea off the northwest coast of Alaska was delivered to US federal regulators in Anchorage. Shell needs the interior department to approve the programme, a revision of its previous plan, to be able to drill when the ice clears next summer, which is expected to be in mid-July. In a statement, the company said it wanted to keep its “2014 exploration options viable”, and it would “only proceed if the programme meets the conditions necessary to proceed safely and responsibly”. Shell will be targeting the Burger prospect, seen as the most promising potential oilfield in an area in which the […]

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Russia to Transfer Detained Greenpeace Activists

MOSCOW — Russia, unexpectedly and without explanation, is preparing to transfer 30 crew members of a Greenpeace International ship from a detention center in the far northern city of Murmansk to a jail in St. Petersburg, the organization said Friday night. The reason for transferring the detainees, who have been held since their ship was seized on Sept. 19 after an open seas protest against oil drilling in the Arctic, was not immediately clear, and a spokesman for Russia’s prison system declined to comment. In a statement , Greenpeace said it also did not know the reason for the transfers, which were expected to begin soon. The move came after the authorities in Murmansk completed charging the 30 people who were aboard the ship, the Arctic Sunrise, with hooliganism, a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison. Greenpeace noted earlier on Friday that, technically, all remain charged […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple