Monday, October 11, 2010

Just a litte longer...

Pipeline leader lays out three-year plan - Northern News Services

At the Prospects North 2010 conference in Yellowknife last week, an Imperial Oil executive laid out a timeline for the preliminary work that would need to be done before a decision could be made whether or not to go ahead with the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline project.

This would assume, of course, that the National Energy Board issues an approval for the project (without unacceptable conditions). We were expecting such a decision last month, but it has been put off until sometime in November.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Denali gas line bids called 'significant': Gas Pipeline adn.com

The Denali Project announced the conclusion of their Open Season on Monday, claiming "significant" volume had been bid for among potential shippers.

To be honest, this really sounded like a paint-by-numbers press release, with nowhere near the energy or optimism that TCPL seemed to exude at the conclusion of their own Open Season back in July.

And, let's face it, there's not a lot of enthusiasm for northern pipeline projects, at least not at the moment. The Deepwater Horizon most directly affected BP, but it really affected public opinion of oil production in general. Never mind that these are gas projects, which in general tend to be "cleaner" from the exploration phase right to the consumer, oil companies in general rank somewhere down the list with personal injury lawyers these days.

That will change, but probably in no meaningful way that will save Denali. BP stands to be on the hook for considerable $$$ to clean up the Gulf of Mexico, and there have been suggestions they are ready to leave Alaska completely. I find it hard to believe they feel that strongly committed to this project. And without them, there's not much left.

One can hope they have data and other assets that will benefit TCPL...