Incentives May Attract Industry to Invest In Cook Inlet - Canada Resets Strategy After GOM Spill

ADN.  Gov. Sean Parnell (NGP Photo) last week signed a pair of bills crafted by Anchorage and Kenai legislators to try to boost Cook Inlet gas exploration and create natural gas storage options for reducing the winter supply crunch. The state tax concessions in the bills are huge: for their drilling, companies can shave tens of millions of dollars off their income and production tax liabilities.  State Sen. Tom Wagoner, R-Kenai, predicted a "stampede" of companies will descend on the Inlet to drill.  Some major Cook Inlet producers like Conoco Phillips, Marathon Oil and Chevron so far have not expressed any interest in bringing an offshore exploration rig to the inlet.  Still, at least two small companies are assembling plans to drill on their Cook Inlet leases next year: Houston-based Escopeta Oil & Gas, and Sydney, Australia-based Buccaneer Energy. No work contracts have been signed yet.

PNA, by Gary Park.  The Canadian and Alberta governments have seized on the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to mount a case that the oil sands pose less of a risk than offshore activity.  While "appaled and horrified"...Environment Minister Jim Prentice (NGP Photo) said....