Arctic

With the worst of the latest blast of arctic cold having occurred over the holiday weekend and a modest warm-up under way, the cash market turned in a mixed performance Tuesday that was dominated by softening.

Less than a month after Congress voted to deny producers access to the energy-rich Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the Interior Department this week announced that it will make available hundreds of thousands of acres of North Slope tundra for oil and natural gas leasing.

Plans to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and natural gas drilling went down in flames last Wednesday as Senate drilling proponents were unable to garner sufficient support to head off a threatened Democratic filibuster of a conference report on the $453 billion defense appropriations bill that called for refuge access for producers.

Plans to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and natural gas drilling went down in flames Wednesday as Senate proponents failed to override a filibuster of a conference report on the $453 billion defense appropriations bill that called for refuge access for producers.

Canada’s Arctic natural gas development is back up and running again after securing new support from the Northwest Territories government and three of four aboriginal communities that straddle the route of the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline.

Canada’s entry in the arctic natural gas pipeline race is still not out of the woods. Aboriginal consent, a key item for resource developers in the Northwest Territories, continues to elude the C$7 billion (US$5.6 billion) Mackenzie Gas Project.

This year appeared to be the best opportunity for Congress to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to energy development and expand leasing in protected offshore regions, but that chance may have gone down in flames late Wednesday.

The House Resources Committee has decided to hold off taking legislation that would open up more federal waters and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to energy development to the House floor this week in an attempt to deal with the concerns of the Florida delegation, a spokeswoman for the panel said.

Federal and Northwest Territories governments are trying to rescue Canada’s arctic natural gas pipeline project by making a deal on community services along the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline route, but whether the approach will do the job remains to be seen.