U.S./Canada
News
September 24, 2024
The two countries have overlapping claims to the seabed north of Alaska, Yukon and Northwest Territories, which is thought to contain significant oil reserves. The Arctic is also a region that has become increasingly accessible and has drawn greater interest from Russia and China.
News
December 22, 2023
The so-called Extended Continental Shelf covers about 1 million square kilometers (386,100 square miles), predominantly in the Arctic and Bering Sea, an area of increasing strategic importance where Canada and Russia also have claims.
News
February 02, 2023
The Biden administration telegraphed it could support a scaled-back drilling plan at ConocoPhillips’s proposed Willow project in northwest Alaska, even as it cited “substantial concerns” with the oil development and warned of further restrictions to limit its impact on wildlife and the climate.
News
January 04, 2023
The proposed carbon storage hub would be connected to a transportation line that would initially gather captured CO2 from an anticipated 14 oil sands facilities in the Fort McMurray, Christina Lake and Cold Lake regions.
News
August 19, 2021
The Trump administration’s approval of a ConocoPhillips oil field project on Alaska’s Northern Slope was rescinded by a federal judge who said it failed to adequately protect polar bears and didn’t properly consider the effects on climate change.
News
June 02, 2021
Under an Interior Department order issued Tuesday, the agency is temporarily halting action on nine leases spanning more than 400,000 acres (161,870 hectares) of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, while it conducts a fresh environmental analysis of the program.
News
May 27, 2021
The Justice Department is defending the Trump administration’s approval of a massive ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. project in federal court, over the objections of environmentalists who say the government didn’t adequately consider the venture’s effect on polar bears and the climate.
News
May 21, 2021
Ministers gathering in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik for a meeting of the Arctic Council last week weren’t due to discuss security. But the issue dominated conversations on the sidelines after Russia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov declared ahead of the summit that the Arctic “is our land and our waters.”
News
February 26, 2021
Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation strongly disputed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announcement that it failed with respect to its permit application to conduct seismic studies in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the company said in a statement.
News
January 28, 2021
In the days before taking office, President Biden promised to unify the country. Then, in his first order of business, promptly alienated Alaska and other states that rely on energy development to keep the lights on in their communities.
News
January 20, 2021
“You can write a lot of executive orders, but an executive order doesn’t get you past go,” Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said on his last full day leading the Interior Department. “They still have to run through the gauntlet of the law.”
News
January 07, 2021
Amid low crude prices, fears about a backlash from the public and the prospect of regulatory uncertainty, just two oil companies placed bids on leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain: Knik Arm Services LLC and Regenerate Alaska Inc.
News
January 06, 2021
The Bureau of Land Management was set to begin opening sealed bids for 10-year leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain Wednesday afternoon, less than a day after a federal judge rejected environmental groups’ pleas to halt the auction.
News
January 06, 2021
The decision is a victory for the administration, which has been racing to issue oil leases in the refuge’s coastal plain before the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
News
December 03, 2020
A formal “notice of sale” is set to be published in the Federal Register on Dec. 7. The move is in keeping with a congressional mandate to hold two auctions of oil and gas leases in the refuge’s coastal plain by Dec. 22, 2024.
News
September 17, 2020
“Any company that bids on leases or expresses interest in destroying the Arctic Refuge for oil will face a major public backlash and long-lasting damage to their reputation,” warned the groups, including the Wilderness Society, Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club.
News
August 24, 2020
Environmentalists and Alaska natives are challenging the Trump administration’s decision to sell drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, arguing the government gave short shrift to the impact on polar bears and the region’s other wildlife.
News
August 17, 2020
“Today’s announcement brings us one step closer to unlocking Alaska’s energy potential, which will create good-paying jobs and provide a new revenue stream for the state,” API senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs Frank Macchiarola said.
News
August 17, 2020
The Trump administration on Monday authorized a sweeping plan to sell drilling rights and spur oil development in Alaska’s rugged Arctic refuge, setting up a possible auction by the end of 2020 and a political clash if the president loses the November election.
News
June 30, 2020
The company will bring back output in Alaska and other states next month, with Canadian production coming back in the third quarter. “Given ongoing variability and uncertainty in the outlook for production curtailments, the company will continue to suspend forward-looking guidance and sensitivities,” Conoco said in a statement Tuesday.
News
May 20, 2020
Canadian and Alaskan crude that normally travels to the U.S. West Coast is finding a market in China, where demand is almost back to pre-pandemic levels.
