TUNE IN THIS AFTERNOON TO OUR TALK RADIO DISCUSSION - Alaskans Are Apprehensive - Understandably

This afternoon at 4 p.m. Alaska time, your author will be in the studio with Alaska Journal of Commerce publisher, Jeff Jones (NGP Photo) as we focus on 2011 energy/economic challenges in Alaska and throughout North America.  You may stream the audio this afternoon at 4 AST by clicking here, on the Dan Fagan Radio Show Icon.  Or, you may listen to or download the podcast later by clicking here on 'Hour 3'. 

Peninsula Clarion by Tim Bradner (NGP Photo).  Expectation and apprehension: two words that say it all for 2011.  For Alaskans watching the state's economy as a whole, with all of its diversified industries, there are expectations of better times.  Those focused on the petroleum industry, which pays the bills for state government, are apprehensive.   ...   More than anything the mood is set by the uncertainty, and now pessimism, about a large natural gas pipeline project. The expectation was that TransCanada Corp. would make announcements at the end of December that it had signed agreements with gas shippers for capacity in its planned 48-inch pipeline from the North Slope. The pipeline company had hoped to have agreements but it now acknowledges this won't happen, at least by New Year's Day.   ...   The continued decline in oil production and lack of new exploration drilling is another concern. In its latest forecast the state Department of Revenue reported that oil production from the North Slope declined 7 percent last year, although the decline is expected to soften to 4 percent this year.   ...   One hope for getting new oil into the pipeline, and one bright light for the industry, is for Shell Oil to make a discovery in the eastern Beaufort Sea, where the company holds federal offshore leases. Shell has been attempting to drill exploration wells since 2007, but has been stymied by lawsuits and regulatory delays.  ...   ConocoPhillips agrees on the potential for viscous oil but its Alaska president, Trond-Erik Johansen, cautioned that modifications in Alaska's high taxes on oil are needed to make this development possible.