Hilcorp Energy Company will take over BP Alaska’s oil and gas leases within Point Thomson, Milne Point and the massive Prudhoe Bay oil field. The transfer is expected to happen around midnight, and marks the close of a major part of the $5.6 billion deal first announced by the oil companies last August.
Energy & Mining
Progress slows on mine project near Haines
Last summer, the Canadian metals company employed about 60 people, roughly half of them locals. This year, it has just one full-time and three part-time employees.
A new transportation route for the proposed Pebble Mine faces backlash from land owners
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has recommended a transportation corridor that cuts through land owned by several Bristol Bay entities that refuse to grant Pebble access to their properties.
Workers on Kotzebue’s solar project just hauled the last of 1,440 panels across the tundra
The 576-kilowatt project in Kotzebue is the second largest in the state, next to the Willow Solar Farm in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.
Pebble offers to pay annual dividend to residents of Bristol Bay, hotbed of opposition to Pebble’s mine
Pebble Chief Executive Tom Collier says he wants to share the benefits of the mine with the region, even before the mine delivers its first load of ore.
Mine backers call report that says the Donlin Gold mine is too expensive to build ‘misinformation’
The mine could be one of the biggest gold producers in the world if completed, but one research firm says that it costs too much to actually build.
Alaska superior court judge orders state to correct its summary of the oil-tax initiative
Judge William Morse sided with the backers of the initiative and wrote in an 18-page order that the summary provided by Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer was not impartial, as required by state law.
Zero-emission air-source heat pumps are trending in Juneau
The nonprofit carbon offset program paying for some conversions had plans to scale up this summer by marketing to climate-conscious tourists. Those plans will be shelved until 2021.
State regulators fine Hilcorp $30,000 for meter-related violations on Kenai Peninsula
Hilcorp took steps to comply after it got a notice of violation
In showdown with Army Corps of Engineers over Pebble Mine, EPA blinks
If the Army Corps grants the mine a permit, the EPA has the authority to veto it, but mine opponents say a new letter makes that look less likely.