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News of a higher price tag than expected and competition from other gas supplies are growing skepticism among state legislators that TransCanada Corp. can deliver on the long-awaited natural gas pipeline to the Lower 48. "Can anyone afford to spend $41 billion and find a way to pay for that investment when natural gas is so cheap?" said Senate President Gary Stevens, a Kodiak Republican. "I think we all have to question that and wonder how it's going. ... There's reason to be concerned, reason to be fearful of what the future is for Alaska." That was the environment faced...

As the Long-Discussed Energy Project Finally Advances, Discoveries of Fields Outside the State Threaten Chances. The discovery of huge new natural-gas fields across the contiguous U.S. is threatening Alaska's plans for a pipeline to export gas to the lower 48 states. Two rival consortiums, each backed by major energy companies, are competing to build the pipeline, designed to carry gas from Alaska's North Slope to continental markets. Alaskans hope that gas will help offset falling oil production, as transported here from the North Slope. .But even as the project is poised to get off the ground after decades of discussion,...

Sarah Palin, like all politicians, made many campaign promises when she ran for Governor in Alaska. Unlike many politicians, Sarah made good on all of hers. And while that is remarkable unto itself, no campaign promise made was more important to the Alaskan people than building a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to the lower 48.

The Anchorage Daily News reported that “TransCanada Corp. [on January 29, 2010] filed a detailed plan [with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] for holding an open season this summer to seek commitments from potential shippers to supply gas for the proposed North Slope pipeline

TransCanada Corp and partner Exxon Mobil Corp boosted their cost estimates for a planned line to carry Alaska gas to southern markets by up to 58 per cent on Friday, as the two ready plans to sign up shippers on the massive project. The companies said the cost of the 2,700-kilometer line carrying at least 4.5 billion cubic feet of gas daily from the North Slope to Alberta will range between $32 billion and $41 billion, up from a previous $26 billion forecast. A smaller line, running from the gas fields of Alaska's North Slope to a liquefied natural gas...

Enbridge Inc., Canada’s No. 2 pipeline company, will open two major pipeline projects months ahead of schedule, it chief financial officer said Thursday. Enbridge, whose pipes carry the lion’s share of Canadian crude exports to the United States, expects to open its 450,000-barrel-per-day Alberta Clipper project on April 1, three months ahead of schedule, Enbridge chief financial officer Richard Bird said at an investor conference. “Both the Canadian and U.S. segments of the Alberta Clipper expansion project are expected to be placed in service on April 1 of this year,” Bird said. “This will be a few months ahead of...

Sarah Palin’s pet project got a huge boost today. An independent group, Environment Canada gave the green light for the US-Canada pipeline. Environment Canada studied the environmental and social impact of the 2,760-kilometre pipeline (1,700 in Canada & 1,060 in Alaska) and determined that the project "would provide the foundation for a sustainable northern future. The challenge to all will be to build on that foundation." The report provides 176 recommendations to ensure that the pipeline is developed responsibly, ranging from pipeline design strategies to waste management schemes to wildlife preservation. etc....

<p>Russia and Ukraine agreed new terms Tuesday for oil transit to Europe, averting the threat of another year-end energy crisis after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused Kiev of "abuse" on the deal.</p> <p>"Yesterday night, everything fell into place. An additional agreement has been signed," Valentyn Zemlyansky, spokesman for Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz, said in Kiev.</p>

MOSCOW, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will witness the celebratory launch of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline, officials say. During Putin's visit to the Russian Far East, he is expected to witness the inauguration of the first leg of the project, which should pump 1.6 million barrels of crude oil per day, the news agency RIA Novosti said Sunday The oil will flow from Siberia to Russia's Far East and on to China and the Asia-Pacific region, the news agency said. The second part of the pipeline is expected to run about 1,300 miles from...

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin launched Russia's long-awaited Siberian oil export route on Monday, hailing a "truly serious event" giving energy-hungry Asia a new supply source from the world's largest crude exporter. Putin, clad in a heavy winter parka, pushed a button that initiated the first filling of an oil tanker at a new oil terminal near the Russian Pacific port of Nakhodka, the projected terminus of the new Siberian oil pipeline. "For Russia this is truly a serious event," Putin said during the terminal inauguration ceremony at the port of Kozmino near Nakhodka, in comments broadcast on state television. "This...

The declining flow of oil from Alaska's North Slope is creating anxiety among executives who run the trans-Alaska pipeline. Within a matter of years, they say, they will need to take costly steps to preserve the life of the 800-mile-long line. If they aren't successful, ice and wax could become a serious problem for the pipeline, increasing the risk of corrosion and spills. Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.'s sense of urgency isn't because the North Slope is running out of oil. The Slope's producing oil fields still contain enough oil to supply the pipeline for at least several more decades. Many...

Obama is so transparent, petty and small, he is an embarrassment. O's latest Chicago way payback? He has nominated Larry Persily, who writes hit pieces on Palin for the Puff Ho, got that? Obama defines the hatred of the good for being the good. You go Sarah. W'vee got your back. Obama nominates former Palin aide to pipeline job [note lefturd Reuters headline -- as if he was part of her camp /not] WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama nominated Larry Persily, a former aide to ex-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, on Wednesday to be federal coordinator for Alaska Natural Gas...

Authorities say an oil spill near Prudhoe Bay contaminated about 8,400 square feet of snow-covered tundra. Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation spokeswoman Weld Royal said oil cleanup crews rushed to the scene about 1 1/2 miles from a production center on the North Slope around 3 a.m. Sunday. She told The Associated Press that it still isn't clear how much spilled or what caused it, but the petroleum did not reach the bay. The spill occurred around an 18-inch pipeline that carried a mixture of crude oil, produced water, and natural gas, but the line was not in operation at...

The U.S. Obama administration put its mark in the overwhelmingly Republican state of Alaska, asking Alaska pipeline coordinator Drue Pearce to step down, according to U.S. news sources Monday. Vice Admiral Thomas Barrett, USCG (Ret.), the deputy federal coordinator, will be interim coordinator until a permanent replacement is named. Pearce, a former Alaska Senate president, had been appointed federal coordinator of Alaska natural gas transportation projects by former President George W. Bush 2006. A terse statement by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska lamented the move, adding "I regret the loss of Drue's experience and knowledge on this project, but I understand...

Alaskans await progress on Palin pipeline plan By DAN JOLING, Associated Press Writer 1 hr 9 mins ago ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Sarah Palin hit the vice presidential campaign trail last year and touted what Alaska could provide for the rest of America — a natural gas pipeline to help lead the country to energy independence. When a pipeline might be built remains a giant question for Alaskans who need the project to support a vulnerable economy and for the Lower 48 states that need the gas, and a petroleum economist who spent more than 25 years in the Alaska Department...

MOSCOW, Oct 19 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Monday that Turkey had given Russia the go ahead to begin work in Turkish waters on the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline to Europe. Russia, which supplies more than a quarter of the European Union's gas, is in a race to build South Stream under the Black Sea ahead of the EU-supported Nabucco pipeline which is meant to reduce reliance on Russia by securing gas from the Caspian. The Kremlin said in a statement that Turkish President Abdullah Gul had telephoned his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, to tell him...

With an ambitious new pipeline planned to run along the bed of the Baltic Sea, the Russian natural gas giant Gazprom is driving a political wedge between Eastern and Western Europe. While the Russian-German pipeline offers clear energy benefits to Western Europe, Central and Eastern European leaders fear it could lead to a new era of gas-leveraged Russian domination of the former Soviet bloc. With its gas wealth and eyebrow-raising network of personal ties, Russia has divided members of the European Union that have vowed to act collectively to protect their security. Currently, Russian gas has to be piped through...

Pipeline at Risk By Michael Lelyveld 2009-09-14 China’s Central Asia gas pipeline project is increasingly at risk amid ethnic unrest in Xinjiang. BOSTON—Renewed unrest in Xinjiang has come at a critical time for China’s energy development as the country prepares to open its first gas import pipeline through the western region by the end of the year, experts say. Central Asian countries report they are on schedule for the mid-December startup of the 2,000-km (1,240-mile) pipeline from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, forming part of an ambitious 7,000-km project to supply China’s eastern cities. On Aug. 14, China National Petroleum...

The fight over global warming and Canadian oil is heating up, and Minnesota, which gets 80 percent of its oil from Canada, is sitting on the griddle. A group of oil companies and big industries launched a TV and radio ad campaign this week to try to snuff out rules that might raise the cost of piping Canadian tar-sands oil through the Dakotas to refineries in the Twin Cities. Meanwhile, environmentalists on Thursday appealed a federal decision that allows construction of another major pipeline across northern Minnesota to bring in even more tar-sands oil from Alberta.

As Palin pointed out to Salazar, the USGS assessment "estimates that Arctic Alaska has mean technically recoverable resources of approximately 30 billion barrels of oil, 6 billion barrels of natural gas liquids and 221 trillion cubic feet of conventional natural gas."