BRADNERS' ALASKA LEGISLATIVE DIGEST

Petersburg Ocean Beauty plant Ocean Beauty Seafoods has put its Petersburg cannery and bunkhouse up for sale and is asking $3.39 million. The property covers 3.25 acres and includes a production area, machine shop and storage areas totaling 65,678 square feet including the bunkhouse. The bunkhouse alone is 13,196 square feet. There is also 2,400 linear feet of waterfront access. The company said it will continue to have an office and local staff in Petersburg to support fishing vessels.  Fishermen…

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Tongass plan by Forest Service  The U.S. Forest Service released a draft timber plan for the Tongass National Forest calling for 225 million board feet of timber on Prince of Wales Island including old growth forest to be harvested over 15 years, a reversal of a 2016 policy phasing out cuts of old growth.

Teck bullish on new zinc prospect   Teck Resources is very bullish about its Aktigiruq prospect in northwest Alaska, on state lands about seven miles north of the existing Red Dog lead-zinc mine operated by Teck. Company officials called it “one of the best undeveloped zinc prospects in the world,” in a briefing at the Alaska Miners Association annual conference, held in Anchorage last week. Red Dog is already one of the world’s largest zinc mines. Unlike Red Dog, Aktigiruq is…

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Moose Pad startup in January Hilcorp Alaska said it will start production at its new Moose Pad project in the Milne Point field in January, on schedule, and that an oil process plant at the site is now 85 percent complete. Moose Pad will eventually produce 85,000 barrels per day. In the short term the company said Milne Point output, which has required a $400 million investment, will increase from 23,000 barrels per day now to 24,000 to 26,000 by…

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The recession is continuing to soften with job losses in 2018 estimated at 2,000, or 0.8 percent, state economist Neal Fried told the Resource Development Council’s annual conference Nov. 14. Job losses are expected to even out in 2019, with slow growth resuming. Still, there’s a lot of catching up needed to reach 2015 peak levels. Employment in the oil industry has essentially leveled out after two years of reductions and construction is actually up, Fried told the RDC. Retail…

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Low water worries ease in SE Worries over low water levels in Southeast hydro facilities due to summer drought have eased with recent rainfall. However, Ketchikan had to fire up its diesel generators early but an increase in water levels in Swan Lake should allow the diesels to be shut down in mid-November.  Siemens modular LNG project The Interior Gas Utility, of Fairbanks, has entered into an agreement with Siemens to investigate the company’s proposal for a modular liquefied natural…

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80th-percentile rule change Consideration of a revamp of the so-called “80th percentile” rule that sets a guaranteed level of reimbursements to health care providers, mainly physicians and specialists, is on hold during the transition from Governor Bill Walker’s administration to the incoming administration of Governor-elect Mike Dunleavy. That also means it will take time for Dunleavy’s people coming in to come to grips with the problem among many others they will juggle. The 80th percentile rule requires payment at the…

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Welcome, Governor-elect Dunleavy Oil prices, production both decline; could PFD plan imperil budget? Call it the curse of the newly-elected: In 2015, just as Gov, Bill Walker took office, oil prices and state revenues collapsed. Now, as Gov.-elect Mike Dunleavy prepares to assume office Dec. 3, oil prices are again falling and, more troubling, oil production is trending down after three years of stability (see page 8). A new factor is that Dunleavy’s campaign pledge to “fully fund” Permanent Fund…

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