Northern Gas Pipelines

(After 5 years, we are now constructing an updated webpage; please forgive the construction debris and broken links.  If you pause your curser over the menu to the left, the menu items should show.  -dh)

Northern Gas Pipelines is your public service, objective, unbiased 1-stop-shop for Arctic gas pipeline history, projects and people, informal and rich with new information, updated daily.  Here is the most timely and complete gas pipeline news collection anywhere. "Miss a day and miss a lot."

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News/Events Archived Here for Historical Reference.  

8-13-08.  History of Alaska Highway Gas Pipeline Project to 2002 (reprint), by Dave Harbour.

8-12-08.  New Norway Success.  BG and partners Idemitsu, Revus Energy and RWE Dea Norge have a new oil discovery in the North Sea offshore Norway, it was learned Monday.  Well 34/3-1 S in License 373 proved “an oil accumulation” in Jurassic-era rock northeast of the Snorre field.. A side track well will seek to understand the breadth of the discovery, which was made in the high-pressure earth’s crust some four kilometres “vertical depth”.  The news comes on the heels of more exploration news from Brazil, where BG at the weekend could herald a new oil discovery, called Iara, below the salt of the Santos Basin.

8-11-08.  Peak Oil.  Ice at the North Pole melted at an unprecedented rate last week, with leading scientists warning that the Arctic could be ice-free in summer by 2013.

8-10-08.  CNN Money, By Cassandra Sweet and Isabel Ordonez, DOW JONES NEWSWIRES - As the race to build a natural gas pipeline from Alaska heats up, U.S. oil major ConocoPhillips (COP) said Friday it hopes to win over Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), which controls most of the gas reserves there.     *     AKSYRIN Blog on recent Hal Kvisle statements.

8-9-08.  FDNM (AP), by Steve Quinn.  Alaskans are $1200 richer with 'Resource Rebate".    *    Dave Harbour editorial, defining 'rebate'.  *     VOT rebate editorial.    *    See yesterday's Charlie Rose interview of John Hofmeister, one of America's leading energy spokesmen.  Thanks to David Batt, CEA -Florida, for bringing this matter to our attention, since Arctic natural resources projects in general need greater public understanding and acceptance in order to provide the supply relief the market so desperately requires.  -dh

8-8-08. VOT.  ANOTHER ITEM from the Globe and Mail interview with TransCanada CEO Hal Kvisle got lost in the smoke and steam resulting from Kvisle's comment that "nothing goes ahead until Exxon is happy with it."  Kvisle also suggested in an interview last Sunday with the Toronto-based newspaper that Denali and TransCanada are likely to join forces sometime in the next two years.  At least that is the apparent implication of his statement that it's unlikely more than one open season will be held in 2010. "This is not about TransCanada dreaming up the project we think will work," he said.  "It's about the five key parties getting together and crafting something here." The five parties are apparently the three big producers, TransCanada and the state of Alaska.    

8-7-08.  The Cattle Network.  SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--Although two pipelines are being proposed to ship natural gas from Alaska's North Slope to markets in the lower 48 states and Canada, only one is likely to get built, a state official said Monday.     *     CNN Money.  SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) said Thursday it's ready to work with the Alaskan government and three companies competing to build a natural gas pipeline in the state, even as a dispute over leases revoked in 2006 looms in the background.      *     John Hofmeister, the recently retired president of Shell Oil, will be on the Glenn Beck TV show tomorrow night (Friday, Aug 8) for a full hour (7 & 9 pm EDT) on the CNN Headline News channel. You can now go on line at www.citizensforaffordableenergy.org and sign up to receive notices from his new organization once it is up and fully running. If you have never listened to Hofmeister tell it like it is, you need to catch him whenever you can. (From David Batt, CEA -Florida).

8-2-08.  Calgary Herald.  Jon Harding.  Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. has stepped over a last political hurdle in Alaska, where the state's Senate approved a plan Friday for Canada's largest pipeline company to build a 2,500-kilometre natural gas pipeline from the top of Alaska to Alberta.

8-1-08.  ADN, by Wesley Loy.  JUNEAU -- Gov. Sarah Palin's natural gas pipeline license won final legislative approval Friday, and an executive for the Canadian energy company that will hold the license said his firm aims to start work right away.... "We do business with those folks each and every day," Tony Palmer said. BP already is the biggest gas customer on TransCanada's North American pipeline network, he said, and Conoco and Exxon also are big shippers.     *      Editorial Comment:  It is interesting that this morning there is no news of the TransCanada victory in the Whitehorse Star, Calgary Herald, CBC or Globe and Mail.  -dh (P.S.  if I'm wrong readers will let me know.)

7-31-08.  ADN (AP), by Steve Quinn.  JUNEAU -- The Alaska Senate is down to its final days of the second special session to decide whether it will support or reject a state license for a natural gas pipeline project designed to unlock 4.5 billion cubic feet of North Slope reserves daily.     *     Dave Harbour letter to Senators: Compare TSM to AGIA.     *     Representative Bob Lynn:  Few votes on controversial issues are easy, and the gas pipeline vote was controversial for every legislator, however they voted. I’ve responded by email to several constituents who asked why I vote as I did. As their representative in the legislature they deserved an answer. One of my mottos is, “The better the communication, the better the representation.” I thought I would turn some of my response to constituents into this Blog, for others who may be interested. 

7-30-08.  Dave Dittman Poll, ALASKA ENERGY & GASLINE ISSUES.     *     The Petroleum Economist.  North America: Mackenzie Gas Project in trouble.  RISING costs, the lack of a clearly defined investment framework and progress with a rival pipeline project are threatening the Mackenzie Gas Project (MGP). MGP is a proposed 1,220 km natural gas pipeline system along the Mackenzie Valley of Canada's Northwest Territories that would connect northern onshore gasfields with North American energy markets.

7-29-08.  VOT Editorial re: AGIA House Vote.  IT WILL BE WORTH remembering, one day when another election rolls around, the names of those in the Alaska House who voted to approve giving $500 million in state money to TransCanada, as a key element in Gov. Sarah Palin's Alaska Gas Inducement Act.  Some legislators call AGIA a train wreck that will not produce a pipeline, or certainly not one in the next 10 or more years.  But a majority of the members of the House voted to go along with the governor, fearing her apparent popularity and somehow believing that TransCanada . . .Here was last week's rollcall in favor of passage of AGIA: 

Democrats — Bob Burch, Sharon Cissna, Harry Crawford, Mike Doogan,Les Gara, Berta Gardner, Max Gruenberg, and Lindsey Holmes, all of Anchorage; Andrea Doll and Beth Kerttula, both of Juneau; Bryce Edgmon, Dillingham; David Guttenberg and Scott Kawasaki, both of Fairbanks; Reggie Joule, Kotzebue; Mary Nelson, Bethel; and Woodie Salmon, Beaver.

Republicans — Bob Lynn and Kevin Meyer, both of Anchorage; Carl Gatto, Palmer; Wes Keller, Wasilla; John Coghill, North Pole; Mike Kelly, Fairbanks; Paul Seaton, Homer; and Bill Thomas, Haines.

The House members who voted against AGIA:

Democrat — Richard Foster, Nome.

Republicans — Nancy Dahlstrom, Mike Hawker, Craig Johnson, Bob Roses, and Ralph Samuels, all of Anchorage; Anna Fairclough, Eagle River; Bill Stoltze, Chugiak; Mark Neuman, Big Lake; Mike Chenault, Nikiski; John Harris, Valdez; Kyle Johansen, Ketchikan; Gabriella LeDoux, Kodiak; Kurt Olson, Soldotna; Jay Ramras, Fairbanks; and Peggy Wilson, Wrangell.

Andrew Halcro Editorial: Every time we hear lawmakers or members of the Palin administration talk about the beauty and necessity of AGIA, they always throw in the same line; it will save us from the $10 billion worth of concessions that the previous gas line proposal cost Alaskans.

7-28-08. Petroleum News Alaska, by Gary Park.  A report to federal Indian Affairs and Northern Development Minister Chuck Strahl makes 22 recommendations, 18 of them directed specifically at the Northwest Territories, to overhaul a cumbersome regime that has been blamed for putting the Mackenzie Gas Project at risk.

7-27-08.  Andrew Halcro Editorial: TransCanada’s revenue estimates, in its application, do not consider producers’ costs. Total revenues to producers are estimated at $183 billion (undiscounted) over 25 years, but Dickinson estimated that $108.9 billion of this must be offset against costs to produce gas (Point Thomson development, Prudhoe capital expenditures) which puts producers’ net revenues at $74.1 billion. In this analysis state revenues are $115 billion, federal revenues are $46 billion, and TransCanada’s revenues are $15.6 billion net of outlays.     *     As I learn more information about Sarah Palin's Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA), I become more skeptical about the prospects for success. On July 24th, 2008, on his radio show, KFQD's conservative shock jock Dan Fagan played an audio clip from TransCanada CEO Harold Kvisle. In this clip, Kvisle states that, before TransCanada constructs an Alaska gas pipeline, they would have to complete the following: (1). The $5.0 billion Keystone project, Phase One.  (2). The expansion of the Keystone project.  (3). The Mackenzie Valley pipeline.

7-20 to 26-08.  Dave Harbour's moratoria remarks to NARUC Gas Committee, Portland.     *     PNA, Denali — The Alaska Gas Pipeline LLC, said July 18 that Mehmet Muftuoglu has been named as chief financial officer.     *     San Diego Union-Tribune, AP by Steve Quinn.  JUNEAU, Alaska – The fate of a multibillion dollar pipeline that could unlock 4.5 billion cubic feet of North Slope gas reserves daily and power North American homes and businesses for decades now rests in the hands of 20 Alaska state senators.

7-19-08.  By next Friday (7-24) we should  be able to continue this reporting.  The week will be filled with some travel, some intense work on the home front and with a briefing to the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners on the subject of Moratoria.  -dh     *     BP Exploration Alaska Inc. (BPXA) has launched a new website in order to compile and maintain a comprehensive list of goods and services available from in-state providers and maximize business opportunities for Alaska companies. The site is: https://www.bpxasuppliers.com     *     PNA by Kristen Nelson.  AGIA hearings to date have focused largely on Alaska issues, since the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act is the State of Alaska’s attempt to encourage a North-Slope-to-market gas pipeline.

A July 13 AGIA hearing targeted Canadian issues: How will the regulatory climate in Canada impact an Alaska natural gas pipeline going through that country to U.S. markets? And would the impact be different for a TransCanada gas pipeline than for the BP-ConocoPhillips Denali project?

7-18-08.  Tundra Drums, by Mary Nelson.  It’s likely the Legislature will vote to approve TransCanada’s license to start the process for an Alaska gasline. Note that the license is not to build a pipeline but only to start the expensive and time-consuming process to seek approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.     *      ADN by Sean Cockerham.  The rhetoric over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is heating up as gas prices rise, with pro-drilling members of Congress and congressional hopefuls making visits to the refuge to hammer home their point.

7-17-08.  VOT.  DEMOCRATS IN JUNEAU apparently are bored. They want a quick vote on Gov. Sarah Palin’s Alaska Gasline Inducement Act license for TransCanada Corp. They complain that the hearings leading up to the vote, which must occur by Aug. 2, have become repetitive.      *     ADN, by Wesley Loy.  JUNEAU -- The government this fall plans to offer oil drillers potentially millions of acres for lease in a giant federal tract on the North Slope.

7-16-08.   AP by Steve Quinn.   TransCanada Corp. wants a license to proceed on a pipeline project that will move North Slope natural gas to Midwest markets, but it will have to wait another week before the Alaska Legislature takes a vote.     *      Platts.  Appearing at the latest Platts Energy Podium event in Washington, Federal Coordinator of the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Projects Drue Pearce said competing project proposals to ship gas from Alaska's North Slope to major US markets are navigating treacherous political, financial and logistical terrain, but progress has been made on all fronts. The best-case scenario for completion of a project is around 2018, Pearce said, adding that "a more realistic first-gas date, but still optimistic, is probably 2019."    *       FDNM by Stefan Milkowski.  The FERC’s broad authority has led some lawmakers to question whether commitments made by TransCanada under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act have any real value. The commitments require TransCanada to propose a financing mechanism aimed at keeping shipping costs low and a system for pipeline expansions aimed at ensuring North Slope development.

7-15-08.  ADN Comment by John Strohmeyer.  In the spirit of the celebration of Alaska's 50th anniversary of statehood, many deserving people are hailed for their roles in making it happen. However in those generally good recollections, I have yet to read about the one person who deserves to stand out among the rest.

7-14-08.  Jack Kelly.  Energy policy could be a game changer, as potent an issue for Republicans in 2008 as the war in Iraq was for Democrats in 2006.  But Mr. McCain has been Hamlet when he needs to be Henry V.     *     President removes North Aleutian Shelf exploration and production moratorium.    *     IBD by Adam Putnam.  Watching Democrat leaders in Washington respond to skyrocketing gas prices has been nothing short of a tutorial on the five stages of grief.     *     AJOC and Bradners' Legislative Journal.  A new special session begins today in Juneau, the first having expired a few days ago (special sessions can only last 30 days). The new one is charged with consideration of Gov. Sarah Palin’s “short-term” energy plan, which involves a lump-sum payment to citizens and repeal of the state’s fuel tax. Legislators will also continue their deliberation over the proposed state pipeline license for TransCanada Corp. The goal is to get a final vote on that by July 16.

7-13-08.  Andrew Halcro.   In what arguably was the best two days of hearings during this entire six week long legislative review on AGIA, lawmakers spent over twelve hours getting answers from those who will pay for the most expensive oil & gas project in the world.    *     ADN by Wesley Loy.  JUNEAU -- Democrats on Saturday called on the House leadership to go ahead with a vote on the proposed natural gas pipeline license, saying hearings on the matter have become "repetitive."     *       FDNM by Stefan Milkowski   JUNEAU — The major North Slope producers shared their concerns about a TransCanada natural gas pipeline on Friday in a discussion Revenue Commissioner Pat Galvin tried to paint as entirely predictable.     *     AJOC by Tim Bradner.  Three key issues have emerged in a proposed state license for TransCanada Corp. to develop an Alaska gas pipeline.   These include how much gas would really be available for the pipeline company, whether the license would trigger financial penalties against the state that could impede the rival the Denali pipeline being pursued by BP and ConocoPhillips, and whether the penalties would be triggered if the Legislature wants to assist an industrial operator in southern Alaska that requires more than 500 million cubic feet per day of gas moved through a spur pipeline.     *     ADN by Sean Cockerham.  While the state Legislature is in special session to decide whether to give TransCanada Corp. a license for a gas pipeline, two former governors are arguing doing so would be a big mistake.

7-12-08.  ADN by Steve Quinn.  JUNEAU -- U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (with author, 6-30-08) said Friday that Alaska state lawmakers should follow Gov. Sarah Palin's lead and move forward on a natural gas pipeline plan.     *     Andrew Halcro: On Thursday, during a presentation by Bud Fackrell, President of the Denali Pipeline group, he was asked by one lawmaker about the lack of guarantees.  Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, asked why the Denali project offers no guarantees of progress toward construction or long-term commitments from the oil producers seeking to build the pipeline.     *     Fairbanks Daily News Miner via AJOC.  A half a billion dollars might not seem like all that much to some people when considering that the state of Alaska might see a $9 billion surplus at the end of the current fiscal year.

7-11-08.  Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin today released this week’s Weekly Gasline Briefing.  The information is available for immediate use and will be archived on the state’s website under AGIA.      *      VOT.  The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that the skeptics include, to varying degrees, the state's proposed partners in what Palin calls "AGIA Lite" and others who would most directly benefit, if the proposal were real.

7-10-08.  Mike Doogan yesterday, via Andrew Halcro.  "As I understand it, what's different between today and the day before there was a press conference is that there has been the announcement of a partnership that has yet to be formed, to ship gas that has yet to be discovered, in what seems to be the wrong direction, in a pipeline that has yet to be built and details will follow."     *     Dan Fagan spent altogether too much time discussing Dave Harbour's eyebrows.  What's wrong with them (Photo-Aviation Museum, July 4)?

7-9-08.  VOT, by Tom Brennan (NGP Photo-R, with Dave Harbour, 6-06).   State officials and some self-appointed experts claim Point Thomson gas isn't needed for a gas pipeline. They say the line could just carry gas from the Prudhoe Bay Reservoir and other already discovered fields. They're blowing smoke — at all of us.     *    ADN Editorial.  Good thing Enstar, an upstanding, multimillion-dollar private company, was at Gov. Palin's press conference Monday. Otherwise, a sober-minded observer might have wondered -- have the governor and the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority gone crazy?       *       Andrew Halcro.  After Monday's press conference, one would think with the circus atmosphere that the bullet line unveiled by Governor Sarah Palin, ANGDA and Enstar would be turning dirt and laying steel pipe by this weekend.

7-8-08.  July 7, 2008, Anchorage, Alaska – Governor Sarah Palin today announced the formation of a public/private partnership among the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority (ANGDA), ENSTAR Natural Gas Company, and the State of Alaska that will build the first phase of a bullet line to bring Alaska gas to Alaskans within the next five years.     (While we do not yet know the proposed details of this venture, the idea of a phased intrastate gas pipe built from Cook Inlet northward to Fairbanks represents sound logic.  If more Inlet gas is found by the 2013 completion date, the line can flow gas North to Fairbanks.  If not, the 'bullet' line can proceed to the North Slope and transport gas South to Fairbanks and Anchorage.  This concept gives Inlet producers a 5-year window to explore for and have a market for new gas reserves.  Its main downside is probably a scenario wherein the bullet line is built to Fairbanks and has to transport dwindling Cook Inlet reserves north; then lacking new Inlet discoveries, the 'bullet' proceeds North and five years after it begins transportingg gas South the Interstate Gas Pipeline is built through Fairbanks, stranding the Fairbanks-Prudhoe Bay bullet line.  While there is that risk (and others), such a decisive plan should be carefully considered since the State's leaders cannot allow constituents to wake up some winter morning a few years from now with depleted pressure in distribution gas lines and lack of gas to power electric utility gas turbine generators.  Kudos to Harold Heinze (NGP Photo-l) and Governor Palin's Energy Coordinator Steve Haagenson (NGP Photo-r), for a creative solution to South Central Alaska's looming energy shortfall.  -dh comment)     *     Halcro Comment: Just two days before the legislature reconvenes in Juneau to decide the fate of the AGIA license for TransCanada, Governor Palin announced a plan to address the pleas for help with in state gas use.

7-7-08.  PNA.  The Alaska Oil and Gas Association named Ken Sheffield (NGP Photo-r, 5-10-07), president of Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska Inc., as its new president, effective July 1.     *     AP by H. Josef Hebert.  High gasoline prices have dramatically changed Americans’ views on energy and the environment with more people now viewing oil drilling and new power plants as a greater priority than energy conservation than they did five months ago, according to a new survey.     *     AGIA's Hail Mary Gas Tax Strategy, by Andrew Halcro.  Over the last few weeks I've heard both talk show callers as well as read blog comments asserting that AGIA is responsible for Denai and the recent tax hike approved by the legislature (ACES) has had no impact on the progress towards a gas pipeline.

7-6-08.  PNA by Kristen Nelson.  While Sen. Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage, has asked the administration to consider mediation before the vote on the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act license application by TransCanada Alaska, fellow Anchorage senators, Democrats Hollis French and Bill Wielechowski, have asked Denali pipeline — the line proposed by BP and ConocoPhillips — to specify how its line would compare on AGIA requirements met by TransCanada, and to do so before the Legislature reconvenes July 9.  (See 7-1-08 entry, below.)     *     The Alaska Gas Pipeline Blog.  While some may credit the AGIA and Alaska's Governor with moving the Alaska Gas Pipeline forward I suggest that you take a look at the chart and link to the left - It shows the price of natural gas more than doubled in the past year. Following the motto of "Lead, Follow or Get out of the Way" it looks like commodity pricing is leading, the producers (Denali Project) are following, perhaps the Governor should stay out of the way.   Links and news of interest:  Andrew Halcro has good summary of the rough and tumble world of lawmakers and the gas pipeline.  In case anyone thinks an Arctic gas pipeline project is easy take a look at this story by Ed Struzik of the Edmonton Journal. The article describes the trials and tribulations of the failing Mackenzie Delta gas line project.

7-5-08.  FDNM, by Stefan Milkowski.  JUNEAU — A new proposal by House Speaker John Harris would lend support to a major Fairbanks energy project and could dwarf Gov. Sarah Palin’s short-term energy plan.

7-4-08.  HAPPY 4TH OF JULY: PRAISE GOD FOR THE FREEDOM SO DEARLY WON AND PRESERVED AND SO MUCH CHALLENGED!  Investors Business Daily reminds readers that our leaders should overcome energy myths to allow us more energy independence.    Meanwhile, Quebec City turns 400 and Calgary STAMPEDES!     *     Andrew Halcro notes today that, "Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker (NGP Photo-r with author's son, Billy Harbour, 3-26-03) sent a letter to State Attorney General Talis Colberg threatening to take certain legal steps if the state does not take immediate action to remedy the energy crisis in Fairbanks."  (See FDNM Blog,