Alaska Dispatch News

The state-owned Alaska Gasline Development Corp. (AGDC), and ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. have executed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to form a joint venture company (JV) to market liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Alaska LNG project. AGDC said the joint venture would also focus on buying North Slope gas and pursue support of other major North Slope producers in the formation. The JV's ultimate goal is to bring global LNG buyers and North Slope wellhead sellers together. According to Alaska Dispatch News, the JV will also try to bring ExxonMobil and BP into the joint venture, according to a statement from the Alaska Gasline Development Corp., the state corporation that represents Alaska in the $55 billion Alaska LNG project.

German shipping company AML Ship Management GMBH and one of its chief engineers pled guilty yesterday to illegally discharging oily waste in Alaskan waters last August. The company and Nicolas Sassin, 45, the chief engineer of AML's City of Tokyo vehicle carrier, each plead guilty to one count of violating the Clean Water Act. They also face charges in Portland, OR, for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. The dumping of 4,500 gallons of oil bilge water occurred 165 miles south of the Aleutian islands.

At a global conference on Arctic opportunity, Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell told participants that the Arctic is an emerging market and Alaska is a launch pad for circumpolar investment. Alaska’s $50 billion economy is fiscally stable and economically diverse,” Treadwell told an audience of investors, industry representatives, government officials, news media participants and indigenous citizens gathered for the first ever 'Arctic Circle' in Reykjavik, Iceland on Sunday. “This is a very forward-thinking group…

'Noble Discoverer', the massive drillship that is an integral part of Royal Dutch Shell's Arctic oil drilling ambitions, is getting a lift to Asia. The drill rig has been loaded onto the cargo deck of another vessel, the 708-foot Chinese-flagged heavy lift ship Xiang Yun Kou, which arrived in Resurrection Bay, not far from the Alaskan community of Seward, reports the Alaska Dispatch. Under the watchful eye of the Coast Guard, the Xiang Yun Kou began lowering itself into the water…

Shelll's drill rig 'Kulluk' broke towlines again in the storm & finally washed up on Sitkalidak Island, near Kodiak, on New Year's Eve. Salvage crews are on stand-by until the weather moderates (the National Weather Service reports seas in the area of being up to 30 feet high, though they're expected to drop down to 22 feet by Tuesday afternoon). Meanwhile the rig appeared sound so far, with no breach in the hull and no discharge of any pollutants into the water, reports the 'Alaska Dispatch'.

Clay Maitland, Chairman of the North American Marine Environment Protection Association (NAMEPA), announces two major events. NAMEPA’s Environmental Intelligence in Maritime Conference, will feature “Greening the Marine Transportation System”, “The Arctic”, “Safety at Sea” and “Corporate Risk Management”. This conference, with NAMEPA's fifth anniversary in mind, will be held on 14, November 2012, and is to be followed by NAMEPA’s 2012 Marine Environment Protection Awards honoring Maersk, NOAA, SUNY Maritime College, and the American Salvage Association (ASA).

Units of Shell's oil drilling fleet leave Dutch Harbor for the Arctic Ocean. The Aiviq anchor-handler has begun the long sea journey, bearing some of the massive anchors that will be set to hold the drilling rig Noble Discoverer in place as it drills a well in the Chukchi Sea, Shell informs the 'Alaska Dispatch'. The ice-breaker Fennica , which will deploy a sound-recorder to establish an acoustic footprint of the anchors being set, also left Dutch Harbor. It will provide baseline…