Winter Solstice by Dave Harbour, Chapel by the Sea, Cook Inlet, Turnagain Arm, Sunset, AlaskaToday we resume our active role in publishing this webpage.  Faithful readers will note that over the past two months, NGP has presented daily weblinks generally following issues affecting northern energy projects in Canada and Alaska.  Having completed his most recent government assignment, the publisher now returns to his other pursuits, including news and editorial writing for this and other media outlets.  Good to ‘see’ you again!  -dh  (P.S.  Yesterday we documented Winter Solstice with a hundred photos from a number of Anchorage venues.  We posted one here with the Alaska Dispatch, another here with the Anchorage Daily News and shall post others here.

E&E Publishing.  More than 20 years after sinking itsCurtis Smith by Dave Harbour, Shell, Chukchi, Beaufort Sea first exploratory well in the Chukchi, only to later abandon the project, Shell is seeking to reopen drilling in the nation’s northern-most federal waters. The campaign has already had a colossal price tag. So far, Shell officials say they have sunk $4 billion in the project, including $350 million to build two of their own ice-breaking ships.  If exploration is successful, it will take 10-12 years before Shell can begin producing oil. During that time, the company would have to build a new ice-resistant drilling facility, install 100 miles of subsea pipeline from the pumping rig to the tiny community of Wainwright and construct a 500-mile pipeline from the shoreline to the beginning of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in Prudhoe Bay.In preparation for that project, the company is already gathering information for what Shell Alaska spokesman Curtis Smith (NGP Photo) described as "probably the largest environmental impact statement in the history of North America."

ADN/PNA by Eric Lidji by Dave Harbour, Petroleum News Alaska, Cook Inlet ExplorationEric Lidji (NGP Photo).  Buccaneer Alaska would like to drill as many as eight wells around Cook Inlet next year, if it can get the necessary financing, the company said recently.

News Miner by Matt Buxton.  At its meeting last Thursday, the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly approved a $430,000 state grant to pay for the feasibility study of a natural gas distribution network in the borough.  The grant to Alaska-based Northern Economics, Inc., will go to studying the costs of building a distribution system and will identify who is best-suited to build and run a system, whether it’s private, public or some mixture of the two.   The study comes out of the concern that, while plenty of attention has been spent on getting natural gas to the borough, not much — if any — has been spent on how to get natural gas into homes, said Borough Assembly Presiding Officer Diane Hutchison.