BRADNERS' ALASKA LEGISLATIVE DIGEST

Ferry strike fallout Southeast leaders say coastal communities in the region weathered the nine-day strike by state ferry worker in late July surprisingly well due to private marine and air operators stepping in quickly to aid ferry passengers. Alaska Fjordlines and Alaska Seaplanes helped people get to Haines’ state fair and barge operators moved stranded vehicles. There was a cost, however: 8,456 cancelled ferry reservations that required $3.25 million in refunds. Also, air and private boat service to Haines from…

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The U.S. Bureau of Land Management released a long-anticipated Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a 211-mile minerals access road from the Dalton Highway in the central Brooks Range to the Ambler Mining District to the west. BLM’s action was accompanied by release of U.S. National Park Service assessments of parts of the road crossing the Gates of the Arctic National Park. Both are key regulatory milestones for the road, which would be critical new infrastructure if built. The road, a…

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More aggressive development; a focus on growing oil production BP’s sale of its Alaska assets to Hilcorp Energy, rumored for weeks (and reported by us) was made official Tuesday, Aug. 26. The sale, for $5.6 billion, includes BP’s shares of the producing Prudhoe Bay oil field; Point Thomson gas and condensate field and ownership in the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. While the loss of a big legacy oil producer stings, there is an upside: Hilcorp is known as an aggressive…

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100 million salmon caught so far The 2019 salmon harvest passed the 100-million-fish harvest mark Aug. 3, according to the weekly Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute catch report. So far the predicted robust sockeye salmon harvest is living up to expectations but pink salmon and chum catches are off, ASMI said. The sockeye catch totaled 52.9 million as of Aug. 3, 10 percent over the 48.1 million sockeyes harvested last year as of that date. Pink salmon were down 12 percent…

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New test tunnel at Palmer project The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, the major landowner at the Constantine Metal Resources project near Haines, gave the final approval needed for a new exploration tunnel to be built at the site. The one-mile tunnel, 16 feet in diameter, will allow underground exploration drilling to access parts of the ore body, and also allow work to be done in a weather-protected environment. The project, called Palmer, is about 35 miles north of Haines…

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Another big season for slope Another big exploration and appraisal drilling season is shaping up for the North Slope this winter. Oil Search will have two rigs working on new appraisal wells aimed at confirming resources in the company’s Pikka project and new discoveries on adjacent leases. Oil Search hopes to increase reserves now pegged at 500 million barrels to 1 billion barrels or more. Meanwhile, ConocoPhillips plans another aggressive winter drilling season this winter in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska,…

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New space data center under construction in Mat-Su A new $5 million space data center is under construction near Talkeetna in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough with the first phase expected to be operational by the end of 2019. The developer is Anchorage-based Pacific DataPort, an affiliate of MicroCom, a 35-year-old Alaska telecommunications service company. A 5,000-square-foot facility is being built on an 80-acre tract where in previous years AT&T operated a satellite data center. Microcom Communications Solutions is. Pacific DataPort closed…

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