Weekend Update

The Canadians issued the "Report of the Joint Review Panel for the Mackenzie Gas Project" The report is supportive of the project. (LINK to press story). I take the view stated once by Dermot Cole - It's not a project until somebody starts ordering pipe (that goes for any Arctic Pipeline).

Shale OIL tidbit. It's not Shale GAS, but here's and interesting story on Exxon's research into production of shale oil in Colorado (LINK). They used a technique called “Electrofrac”. Basically they drill horizontal wells in the shale formation, fracture it, inject a conductive material then pour on the amps to resistively heat the formation until the hydrocarbons flow. What's the Alaska gas angle? Electrical power - lots of gas will be needed to produce the power needed to fry the foundations of Colorado and Utah. Note: the oil production objective is 162,000 bbls / acre. The overall resource is estimated in the Trillions of barrels of oil. Yeah they're gonna need some gas.

Speaking of Shale...Here's a story on shale gas in New York state (LINK). Apparently everyone does not have unconditional love for shale gas exploration and development. (LINK to Marcellus Shale info)

Finally - According to Halcro's website, something's cooking with DNR Commissioner Tom Irwin. With some luck maybe this player hater can move on.

Joint Review Panel Report - ISSUED !

Today the Canadians will issue and post the "The Joint Review Panel assessing the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the proposed Mackenzie Gas Project"

According to the media advisory the report will be posted here (LINK).

How does this relate to the Alaska Gas Pipeline? It's a model of the hurdles that await the Alaska Pipeline. Bud Fackrell (Denali Pipeline President) recently said he thought the Mackenzie Pipeline would start before the Alaska Gas Pipeline - we'll see if he's right.

UPDATE - IT'S ISSUED!