Bill Walker News

Alaska Governor Bill Walker said on Tuesday he has asked U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to pare back a Trump administration plan for oil and gas leasing off the state's coast. While Walker supports offshore oil development, he said the Interior Department should focus on the most prospective areas off Alaska – the Beaufort and Chukchi seas in the Arctic and Cook Inlet in southern Alaska – and drop all others from the leasing plan. In asking for proposed lease sales to be dropped…

Twenty-two Democratic U.S. senators from 12 states on Thursday joined the chorus of local representatives seeking exemptions from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's newly proposed offshore drilling plan, after his surprise move on Tuesday to shield Florida. Zinke surprised lawmakers, governors, and industry groups on Tuesday night by announcing that Florida would be removed from the Interior Department's proposal to open up over 90 percent of federal waters to oil and gas leasing.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) today announced it plans to offer approximately 1.09 million acres in Cook Inlet off Alaska’s southcentral coast in a proposed lease sale this year. Cook Inlet Oil & Gas Lease Sale 244, scheduled to take place in June 2017, would offer 224 blocks toward the northern part of the Cook Inlet Planning Area for leasing. The blocks stretch roughly from Kalgin Island in the north to Augustine Island in the south. “Following a robust environmental analysis, we are moving forward with the Lease Sale 244 process,” said Walter Cruickshank, BOEM’s acting director. The Proposed Notice of Sale is available now at www.boem.gov/ak244. A Notice of Availability will be published Monday, Feb. 27 in the Federal Register Reading Room, and on Tuesday, Feb.

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.

BP, Conoco Phillips, and Exxon Mobil said that the 65-billion dollar megaproject would be too unprofitable for them to move into the next phase of development. The Big 3 oil companies have told state lawmakers that the proposal on the table to pipe, liquefy and export North Slope natural gas is uneconomic and they won't move forward as partners. However, they said they would sell their natural gas to a state-developed project if it comes to fruition, which is more in doubt than ever. A report in WSJ said that Exxon Mobil Corp. has decided not to invest in the next stage of a proposed natural gas export terminal in Alaska and said it would work with its partners to sell its interest in the project to the state government.

The State of Alaska has finalized a deal with TransCanada to buy out the pipeline company's share in the proposed Alaska liquefied natural gas export project for nearly $65 million. Alaska has completed the buyout of TransCanada’s interest in the Alaska LNG project, a $65 million expense that gives Alaska the same stake in the $55 billion effort as ExxonMobil, BP and ConocoPhillips. Gov. Bill Walker hailed the move as “historic," calling the gas line project the best “get-well card” for a state facing a $3.5 billion deficit. Kenai Peninsula Borough Special Oil and Gas Assistant Larry Persily says the action doesn’t change the project schedule or cost, reports Radiokenai.

A group of protesters gathered at the Port of Seattle on Tuesday seeking to block workers attempting to reach a Royal Dutch Shell drilling rig that could depart this week to resume fossil fuel exploration in the Arctic. Over the past month, activists have staged demonstrations against the oil company's plans to drill for oil in the Arctic, including on May 16 when hundreds of protesters in kayaks and small boats fanned out on a Seattle bay. Several dozen protesters gathered early on Tuesday to block entrances to Terminal 5 at the Port of Seattle where the rig is being outfitted for its trip north to the Chukchi Sea off Alaska. Shell did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the protest. There have been no arrests, Seattle police said.

Alaska's lone road to North Slope oil field operations remains closed for the third time in two months while emergency crews continue to redirect flooding from an adjacent river, state officials said on Friday. Alaska Governor Bill Walker's office said he would sign a second disaster proclamation while in Deadhorse, the base of operations for several oilfields, after a three-day tour of drill sites that included a fly-over of the flooded area. Production and pipeline operations have not been affected by the closure, said BP Plc spokeswoman Dawn Patience, operator for the Prudhoe Bay field. A 10-mile stretch of the Dalton Highway leading into Deadhorse shut down early on Monday morning and state transportation officials had hoped to re-open the roadway on Friday.

Analytic Systems has announced that it has responded to its commercial marine reseller network in North America and started the process of certifying their marine specific power conversion products. These products will be highlighted at the Multi-Agency Combat Craft Conference at Norfolk, VA in May, 2012. The first models to be certified to ABS standards are the new BCA1505 (1500W AC charger); the BCA310 (300W AC charger); the IPS300 (300W DC/AC Puresine inverter) and the VTC315 (Isolated DC/DC voltage converter). In addition a new line of cost reduced Intelligent AC battery chargers, cost reduced power supplies and inverters will also be highlighted. ABS has provided Analytic Systems with their Certificate of Manufacturing Assessment # VA2089914-A-X.

Analytic Systems has announced that it has responded to its commercial marine reseller network in North America and started the process of certifying their marine specific power conversion products. The first models to be certified to ABS standards are the new BCA1505 (1500W AC charger); the BCA310 (300W AC charger); the IPS300 (300W DC/AC Puresine inverter) and the VTC315 (Isolated DC/DC voltage converter). In addition a new line of cost reduced Intelligent AC battery chargers, cost reduced power supplies and inverters will also be highlighted.

SeaKits, the developer and provider of the Marine Maintenance System (MMS), has signed an agreement with Boston’s Best Cruises to provide the company’s two workboat fleets with their turnkey MMS Fleet Solutions. SeaKits and Boston’s Best Cruises met at the Passenger Vessel Association meeting in February and began discussions of implementing Fleet Solutions into their Boston and Ft. Lauderdale based fleets. The Boston fleet’s maintenance program will begin operations with MMS by the end of April.

Divers from Mobile Underwater Diving Salvage Unit (MUDSU) 1 based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, will soon descend into a Pacific lagoon to stop a recent oil leak and assess the material condition of a World War II Navy oil tanker that sank in 1944. USS Mississinewa (AO 59), a 553-foot auxiliary oiler, was commissioned May 18, 1944, and supported the ships of the 3rd Fleet in the Central and South Pacific. The huge lagoon at Ulithi Atoll was an anchorage for hundreds of Pacific Fleet ships and major staging area for campaigns at Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Mississinewa was anchored in Ulithi's lagoon when it was struck by a Japanese-manned suicide torpedo, or "kaiten," on the morning of Nov. 20, 1944. The ship burst into flames and sank, killing 63 American Sailors.

Island Boats, Inc., New Iberia, La., has been contracted to construct two 65-ft. aluminum catamarans for delivery to a Boston customer. The vessels will be delivered with a USCG SubChapter K Certificate of Inspection for 200 passengers and are being designed by Pete Melvin of Morrelli and Melvin Design, Long Beach, Calif. The vessels will be powered by twin MTU Series 60 main diesels developing 600 hp each and should drive the vessel to a cruising speed of 21 knots fully laden. The vessels will have an enclosed air-conditioned main cabin and open air seating on the upper deck. The vessels will provide daily passenger service to the Boston Harbor Islands and will be available for winter charter at the end of the summer season.

Island Boats, Inc. of New Iberia, La., has been contracted to build two 65 ft. aluminum catamarans for delivery to a Boston customer. The vessels will be delivered with a USCG SubChapter K Certificate of Inspection for 200 passengers and are being designed by Pete Melvin of Morrelli and Melvin Design, Long Beach, Calif. The vessels will be powered by twin MTU Series 60 main diesels developing 600 hp each and should drive the vessel to a cruising speed of 21 knots fully laden. The vessels will have an enclosed air-conditioned main cabin and open air seating on the upper deck. The vessels will provide daily passenger service to the Boston Harbor Islands and will be available for winter charter at the end of the summer season.