Alaska

A decade from now, North American (Canada, Alaska and Lower 48) exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) will be about 10 Bcf/d, according to the base case of a new LNG export analysis.

Oil and natural gas operators working in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea area would have a negligible effect on polar bears and walruses, according to a federal appeals court, which on Tuesday backed rules issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

Three liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments have been sent to Japan out of the Kenai LNG plant on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula in recent weeks, according to operator ConocoPhillips.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said a small-scale test of technology to extract natural gas from methane hydrates conducted on Alaska’s North Slope was successful. The department is launching a long-term production test in the Arctic as well as research to test technologies that could be used to locate, characterize and extract methane hydrates on a larger scale in the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Lower 48 gas production in January climbed half a percent or 0.36 Bcf/d, to a record 72.85 Bcf/d, mainly thanks to production gains in states in the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) “other states” category, which included drilling activity in the Marcellus Shale.

Once slated for mothballing, the Kenai LNG (liquefied natural gas) plant on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula will begin exporting LNG again next year, operator ConocoPhillips said.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued the final air quality permits necessary for Shell Oil Co. to conduct oil and gas exploration drilling in Alaska’s Arctic region. In August the U.S. unit of Royal Dutch Shell plc was awarded conditional approval by the Department of Interior to drill up to four exploratory wells over two years in the Beaufort Sea, where it has invested more than $3.5 billion in leases and predevelopment. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said Shell may begin exploring the area in July 2012 once it obtains required permits (see NGI, Aug. 8). Shell said it is “still pursuing permits and authorizations from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service” and “later in the process, we will file our applications for permits to drill, largely considered the final permitting steps before drilling commences.”

A wave of frigid winter air forecast to sweep out of northwestern Canada and Alaska next week could bring single-digit and below-zero high temperatures to much of the United States through the third week of January, AccuWeather.com said Thursday.

A study commissioned by the state of Alaska paints a picture of rising costs in North American shale gas plays and higher gas prices in the years ahead that lend support to the case for a gas pipeline from the state’s North Slope to serve Lower 48 markets.