Alaska officials working to keep North Pole refinery open
Originally published Monday, January 5, 2009 at 10:15 a.m.
Updated Monday, January 5, 2009 at 6:07 p.m.
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Stumble It!ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- State officials are hoping to avoid a shutdown of the Flint Hills Resources refinery in North Pole.
If the refinery was to shut down, it could impact the Anchorage economy, as well as the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and the Alaska Railroad.
Flint Hills is owned by Kansas-based Koch Industries Inc. The company says the refinery near Fairbanks is struggling to make money because of last year's record high prices for crude oil.
The refinery started up in 1977, the same year the nearby trans-Alaska oil pipeline began carrying Prudhoe Bay crude oil. It uses a spur line to tap the pipeline for crude that's cooked into finished products, such as jet fuel, heating fuel and gasoline.
Flint Hills buys the oil at market rates, plus a premium of more than $1 a barrel, from the state, which receives a royalty share of North Slope production.
Koch spokeswoman Katie Stavinoha said one option is converting the receiving station to distribute but not make fuels. Last year, the company also mentioned possibly upgrading the refinery, but such an investment has now been deemed "not economically justified," she said.
In the meantime, the company is looking for a buyer.
Nearly every day, a train hauling mostly jet fuel makes the run from North Pole to Anchorage. These fuel shipments are vital business for the railroad, generating $41 million, or 36 percent of its combined freight and passenger revenue in 2007.
The Anchorage airport also is one of the world's busiest pit stops for cargo jets. Aircraft last year used 864 million gallons of jet fuel. The Flint Hills refinery makes roughly 60 percent of the jet fuel pumped at the airport, state officials say.
If the refinery were to cease production, the Alaska Railroad couldn't run as many trains, would have to cut its payroll dramatically, and would need to raise rates for moving passengers and other freight such as coal and gravel, said railroad board chairman John Binkley.
State officials say at the airport, fuel sellers likely would have to ship in more fuel from Outside suppliers, which could push up prices and make Anchorage less attractive as a stop for international air cargo carriers.
Gov. Sarah Palin announced in December that the state had launched a "cooperative effort" to help Flint Hills. A news release from her office suggested the refinery could end up as part of the Alaska Railroad, a state-owned corporation.
Binkley said later in the month that the railroad does not want to be in the refinery business.
One way the state could help Flint Hills would be to lower the sales price of its royalty oil. But Kevin Banks, the state's oil and gas director, said the courts have held the state can't give select companies a "sweetheart deal" on state resources.
Community Discussion
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I greatly distrust that place.
.
Sorry, but I greatly distrust that place.
.
If we have to import heating oil while the pipeline ships crude south we'll be the biggest moron state in the Union. The legislators will need to acquire the refinery. The federal government has already paved the way with buying Freddie Mac, Fanny Mae, AIG, banks, et al.
It is -40. The community NEEDS heating oil, especially if the Borough cracks down on wood. Who will live here if we can't heat our homes?
Lots of ways to to do things without a buy out. The state just gave away just shy of 1 billion dollars to each and everyone of us knowing that the refinery business here in Alaska has been scrambling. A state can invest in infrastructure without buying it. That giveaway was the moment in time we gave away any solution that will happen without serious pain on all of ours part. It was also the one and only time I have ever agreed with Mike Kelly. Ouch.
"The company says the refinery near Fairbanks is struggling to make money because of last year's record high prices for crude oil."
I don't believe this, as they increased gas prices significantly as the gas prices rose. Not only this, but twice as much then expected. (Um. The public can remember the gas prices nowadays for the past year?)
There's something the company isn't fessing up too. People just want the facts (aka truth). If you don't keep them informed, they tend to get upset.
As if to say, "Oh BTW. We've got all the equipment at the refinery on a high interest loan... we just forgot to mention it to the public."
Ditto to sosorry's comment. But then again, the majority is just going to take the money... especially with skyrocketing heating oil prices. Especially the workers at the plant getting $1,000 (and per sibling).
Think this situation royally stinks.
Excuse me but was this not a issue for Fairbanks before the money give-away program?
What was done about it then...
NOTHING
Now that Anchorage might be impacted the goverment is launching a "cooperative effort" to help Flint Hills.
Oh, I forgot A comes before F always....
We are already subsidizing the refineries to a tune of $285 million a year. This is how much they are getting by charging us $1 a gallon more than the US average. The worst thing that would happen to Fairbanks without Flint Hills is that our gas prices would drop $1 a gallon. Spot prices are between 87 cents and $1.20 per gallon.
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pr...
The economist hired by the state put the transportation costs at around 15 cents per gallon. Worst case would put the pump price at $1.70 right now. The only looser would be the international cargo carriers who are getting a sweetheart deal today. While we are paying $1 more than Washington for gasoline the cargo carriers are paying 4 cents a gallon more at Ted Stevens than at SeaTac. I say no more bailouts for the richest private corportation in North America. Don't even get me started on their parent companies warehousing of crude of the Gulf Coast.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/26/news/eco...
We are already subsidizing the refineries to a tune of $285 million a year. This is how much they are getting by charging us $1 a gallon more than the US average. The worst thing that would happen to Fairbanks without Flint Hills is that our gas prices would drop $1 a gallon. Spot prices are between 87 cents and $1.20 per gallon in the lower 48.
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pr...
The economist hired by the state put the transportation costs at around 15 cents per gallon. Worst case would put the pump price at $1.70 right now. The only looser would be the international cargo carriers who are getting a sweetheart deal today. While we are paying $1 more than Washington for gasoline the cargo carriers are paying 4 cents a gallon more at Ted Stevens than at SeaTac. I say no more bailouts for the richest private corportation in North America. Don't even get me started on their parent companies warehousing of crude of the Gulf Coast.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/26/news/eco...
batman_ak: Concerning stove burning, the real problem is vehicles and 24/7 heating going on in Fairbanks City during sub zero temps. Nothing new for the city. FNSB, i think, realizes they will fail at implementing smog testing (as if that'll help at all) and they won't build Parking Garages for parking vehicles in sub zero temps at each major shopping center. So, the next thing they can do is, limit wood burning. Which, won't do anything for the Fairbanks City ice fog issues. But, we'll get a few bucks from the EPA for being forced to turn in our wood burners. And, I really doubt the EPA is forcing the FNSB into implementing something. Obviously somebody is betting nobody here has ever lived in Cleveland. LOL
Don't know about you. But I'm for a real solution rather then just a few free dollars. (Money isn't handed to you for nothing in this world. If it is, then there's usually strings attached somewhere. ;-)
batman_ak: Concerning stove burning, the real problem is vehicles and 24/7 heating going on in Fairbanks City during sub zero temps. Nothing new for the city. FNSB, i think, realizes they will fail at implementing smog testing (as if that'll help at all) and they won't build Parking Garages for parking vehicles in sub zero temps at each major shopping center. So, the next thing they can do is, limit wood burning. Which, won't do anything for the Fairbanks City ice fog issues. But, we'll get a few bucks from the EPA for being forced to turn in our wood burners. And, not just focusing on the limitations to the city limits like most places, but the entire Borough which doesn't have any real pollution problems.
And, I really doubt the EPA is forcing the FNSB into implementing something. Obviously somebody is betting nobody here has ever lived in Cleveland. LOL
Don't know about you. But I'm for a real solution rather then just a few free dollars. (Money isn't handed to you for nothing in this world. If it is, then there's usually strings attached somewhere. ;-)
It is ironic that this is only a big deal because of the AK railroad and ANC Intl Airport, two highly subsidized State entities.
I have to wonder if Flint Hills strategically positioned themselves for the hit-and-run tactics since purchasing the refinery 4-years ago or if management are just idiots who don't know how to run a business.
Based purely on the fact that FHR/Koch is the largest privately owned company in the U.S., I don't think the 'idiots' scenerio holds water.
So that leaves one to conclude that they have strategically positioned themselves on purpose since they now apparently hold the State of Alaska and Alaska transportation hostage.
Afterall is said and done; FHR/Koch made business decisions and if they're not making money and want to sell it or shut it down that is their choice...happens everyday in business.
It is just totally ironic to me that the State of Alaska is even considering bailing out the largest privately owned company in the U.S.!!!
Wonder what the price of heating oil is in Galena right now?
Or what fuel prices are in lots of other places in rural Alaska?
Wonder how much money the Alaska Permanent Fund lost this last year with the Stock Market down turn?
if you beleive what the refinery is telling you i have some ocean front property to sell you. trust but verify. also don't depend on a politician from alaska trying to help you as they are only worried about being reelected and as our federal politicians showed us last year we have the best politicians money can buy.
"Last year, the company also mentioned possibly upgrading the refinery, but such an investment has now been deemed "not economically justified,"
"Afterall is said and done; FHR/Koch made business decisions and if they're not making money and want to sell it or shut it down that is their choice...happens everyday in business."
What makes anyone of us think the state should buy the refinery when Flint Hills is running for the hills? FH just wants to get thier money and RUN, as fast as they can!
The refinery needs upgrading or cleanup. Do you really think FH wants to be stuck with the environmental cleanup costs? NO they don't!
Why should the state invest in something that PRIVATE industry says is a loser? For someone who wants a losing enterprise I have a 1992 vehicle I would like upgraded, bail me out!
To everyone on here that is a refining expert: Please open a refinery and make some competition for Flint Hills. Find out how much it takes to operate in this state and then you will wake up.
Fairbanksgas;
If your assertion that Flint Hills is commanding a price that is a dollar above the purchase price in the 'lower 48', then one should be able to make $8500 profit per 10,000 gallons by simply hauling fuel from there to here.
This raises the question "Why isn't there a line of trucks heading North full of fuel?"
olypopper: from what i hear, Petrostar, right across the street did just fine in the books.
Petrostar is not cry-babying to the State to lower contract prices.
Petrostar contracted with the producers which was an obviously sound and rational business choice compared with guaranteed quantities of royalty oil.
Doesn't that make you wonder why FHR chose the specific route they did when they bought the refinery in '04?
Was it bad business or was it strategic?
If royalty oil is $1/bbl (42 gal) above market, this would translate into ~ 2.5 cents more per gallon...hardly an explanation for the almost 1$/gallon discrepancy at the pump vs the lower 48. Plus they dump what they don't use back into the pipeline - a unique cost saving perk. So I think we should all be highly skeptical that "government greed" is driving our driving costs so high.
Having worked at FHR for 3 years (& been let go on a trumped-up charge of "cultural incompatibility") I know all about the FHR creed of unfettered laissez faire capitalism, an economic philosophy that opposes all government involvement or subsidies.
I'm loathe to make accusations I don't have hard evidence to back up but based on other questionable practices I witnessed, my gut instinct tells me the 100-200 megabuck desulfurization improvement never happened as part of a deliberate plan to strengthen a near-monopoly command of the market.
The owners live far away & don't care how their monopoly hurts us. We are here to be exploited as any other resource. If they were interested in doing the right thing (taking responsibility) they'd have kept their word & would be making the requisite investment/upgrades.
It's also why their talk of free market economics - which I generally advocate - comes off as hollow propaganda. When they earn fat profits, they're capitalists, but when they see losses, they go to the government for help & threaten to take their marbles home if they don't get a bailout. The word hypocrite comes to mind.
Except for a few who betray Alaskans by prioritizing FHR's inimical goals, I have great respect for those who work at the refinery. I hope for their sake - and ours - FHR gets the heck out of Alaska so something better can happen.
I would love to hear Jeff Cook's "politically correct" (oxymoron) explanation of why Flint Hill is in the position it is! The last time Jeff & I spoke, he tried to blow smoke up my arse with a mouthful of gibberish! My mother may have raised an ugly child, but she didn't raise a stupid one! Okay Jeff, let's hear it, inquiring minds want to know why we have taken it the shorts. Your turn Jeff, if your are reading this!
RickHoegberg: I was just assuming the owern(s) own at least one or two houses & no care towards us. But you explaining the owners don't even live in AK puts icing on the cake. Your last two paragraphs makes complete sense. I also enjoyed your blunt honesty.
Some folks are talking about the possibility of converting TAPS to dual use oil+gas..
This will change the "always online" status of FHR..
It's something that adds more pieces to the GrandPlan operational puzzle of the entire system.
FLNG is very appealing to the state-DOG because of falling revenues from crude, but a still solid LNG market to Asia.
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&...
If the dual use O+G plan flies then it will be possible to ship batches of propane and ethane between pigtrains too.
This will immediately open up opportunities to set up a polyolefin plant in Fairbanks for producing polypipe-a-plenty.
Lotsa JOBS JOBS JOBS
Lotsa JOBS JOBS JOBS
Lotsa JOBS JOBS JOBS
ALASKA FIRST -------
If this happens, Alaska will finally get the Cart Behind the Horse when trying to pass the gas to market..
..the best market is right here in Alaska.
[ya never wanna try to put a cart behind a moose though -- although it would make for a hilarious youtube, as long as the moose didn't get hurt -- the moose instinctively thinks it's being chased by a bear and will try to out run the cart -- don't do this unless you make sure you can let the moose go with a good greasy slipknot after he gets up to speed -- eventually 1 out of 10 moose can be trained to pull a cart, better for pulling log-sleds]
Propane does not put out nearly as much BTU's as "Heating Oil"/Number 1 or 2 fuels.
Although it is lighter by weight. I can only imagine the amount of propane one could sell... then give the people a year or two to find out that they need to buy 3-5 times more then they do Number 1 or 2 fuels for heating their homes.
Also, leaks are extremely common with propane and *cannot* be readily seen.. As such, you could have an empty tank or two before realizing the leak. (ie. Wasted money)
(^I hate hype.^ Nor do I want to rip-off my neighbor. Money has to originate from somewhere.)
I'm too busy, but I'm hoping somebody would try to open up the 3 old topping plants again, or buy some new ones.
A skilled negotiator can get a good deal on a little-topper..
http://www.chemexinc.com/minirefineries....
I have an export-import license for Asia and can source some prices from there next time I'm over there [soon]..
maybe some of you have a cousin in Texas that can get you the best price on a 625bpd-topper..
it just takes one to get the ball rolling for adding more&more independent capacity.
DistantThunder: Eh. Ever hear of those Companyies, "Employee Owned"? ... interesting thought. Maybe if the workers bought the plant... maybe, just maybe the customers would begin to trust.
Being in AK, you would think Fairbanks/FNSB would own it's own plant!!!
rogerx --
you're absolutely right about propane..
except worldwide there's a big percentage of the market that prefers propane to fuel-oil for many many reasons.
This dialog about propane-vs-fueloil has been going on for over 70years and the this for that analysis has never changed..
yet at the end of the day none of us has ever seen a propane market dry up for lack of interest.
Propane = 91,600 BTU's / gallon
Fueloil = 140,000 BTU's / gallon
I'd rather eat pizza baked in a propane oven.
If you boost your diesel generator with propane the overall efficiency goes up 10%, which is a good deal because it pays itself off in just a month or two.
Propane has much less heat loss thru the chimney, more efficient.
Propane is almost zero pollution.
The state pays more per year cleaning up fueloil spills that it would cost to buy a LPG-tankership and deliver 1000ton loads to all the coastal communities.
==========
This 6" polypipe gasline is easily capable of delivering 200gallons per minute of LPG or ethane-condensate to Fairbanks.
200gpm = 288,000 gallons of condensate or propane per day
Propane - 91,600 BTU's/gallon
Hardwood (20% moisture ) 24,000,000 BTU's/cord
91,600 x 288,000 / 24,000,000 = 1,099.2 cords of birch x $200/cord = $219,840 firewood/day
woodstoves have 40-60% heatloss thru the chimney
propane out-vented heaters have 10% heatloss outdoors
this means 23,742,720,000BTU's of heat from propane
can be delivered to indoor heating using the 6" polypipe gasline
this will give 23,742 houses a million BTU's per day.
..this will turn 132million gallons of water to steam
Everything in Alaska should be employee owned--
I dunno if I can think of a good reason for an exception.
Any guesses out there?
DistantThunder: I applaud your facts. Well said. Way better then some not even bothering to explain. But just remember, even though it's cleaner, it's still CO. At least sticking your head around a Propane heating system won't be as bad as sticking your nose to the tail pipe of a gas engine. And, since it's more moisture then heat, it may create more ice fog vs other fuels. It gets more evident as temperatures drop.
<shrugs> I'd sure like to experience a propane boiler. However, the leaky pipes are a pain... And to think I was only dealing with copper fittings in 20-32F temps! -40F, can only imagine the expansion in the piping. (I'm talking the home propane tanks supply line & not the main pipeline.)
And, you would think both, Federal & State would be strong backers of such a corporate scenario of "employee owned".
Anybody willing to give up a chunk of PFD to buy interest in a oil plant? Then you can get a cut of the revenue from sales to. After the money is spent to upgrade the equipment, or if it's like the clean coal plant over in Healy, it might be cheaper to trash it and build something with more eco-friendly technology.
Speaking of moronic thinking, We get paid for the companies pulling out oil and then they sell it back to us. I think gold is in the same category, how come the mining industry doesn't have a amount charge for what they take out?
I have a hole in the ground that I pump water out of, I should get a company to pump that out for me, pay the state a percentage then sell it back to me and then the state can give me a percentage of what the company made back to me.
New president, same sheep, and no, the president does not own the sheep, that was the selling of your earning potential to the Federal Reserve. Oh look, a squirrel!!!!
I remember reading Alyeska News literature in the late 90's touting their successful experiments in sending large "envelopes" of natural gas down the TransAlaska Pipeline. It not only can be done but has.
There is a Koch Industries connection with why there is a gasline to the Midwest in the first place. And who bankrolled Lindauer when he split the vote so Knowles won the governorship lastime?
These guys play hardball and it stinks bigtime.
When FHR asked for financial help and then refused Tom Irwin's request to see their books first was a pretty strong clue that something isn't right.
These large companies have way too much power in the way they operate. It is not going to get better either. These huge mergers that have been going on. This is not the " Way Off The Future" this is the way to global corruption and exploitation that ultimately ends up in mass populations of human beings slaughtered in wars that they don't even know why they are happening.
There is nothing inherently good in big business it is only as good as the governments that have the power to control it. Do we still have that power?
Too many rats have had their claws dug into all of us for way too long, it is time to pass the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, i.e. removing corporations from "personhood" as established by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1886, all to to the benefit of the railroad robber barons who went on to exploit Alaska via Kennecott Copper (the Guggenheim Trust), their attempt at the Beluga Coal fields (part of the Teapot Dome scandal), Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P), who were the big dogs in Alaska salmon fish traps, and now their descendants, the 7 Sisters who plague us now via themselves and agents such as Koch Industries.
How long have we been sleeping?
I say it's time to let it Rip.
Distant Thunder, you like to bring up these topping plants. I must admit I don't understand what a topping plant really is. Please explain them for me. What do they do? What do these small/portable topping plants actually cost?
Sure seems to be a lot of Blagojevich going on here. Call Obama's Hope Line and turn these guys in. Someone must be getting rich. Otherwise everything would be free. Is this Alaska or what? And I think we should get our PFD in July and a second one in October. And if a company became employee owned, who could you trust? All the employees would then be "owners" and automatically become money grubbing monsters. Wow! Blagojevich!
Maybe Fed Ex should buy it, they are the folks that need the jet fuel.
I wonder if the state were to simply let FHR out of their guaranteed crude contract, would that make FHR happy and solve their immediate problems?
It seems odd to me that Williams was forced to sell the NP refinery because it was one of its best money makers. And now Skin Flint Refining can't make a profit.
The LOGIC says, we Alaskans should own the NP refinery. The entire USA has, what?,...9 refineries? This is nearly identical to the "fertilizer" issue,...get yer head out of yer A$$. Please don't call China and ask for a handout. The Alaska PFD has sufficient funds to back an Alaska funded loan to purchase the refinery
Of course, Alaska has sufficient funds to buy the NP refinery.
Oh wait, let's import more oil from OPEC.
Call the Carlyle Group,...please do a search on Carlyle.
Lakloey, Flint Hills is free to get out of the contract anytime as long as they give 6 months notice. The fact is that they are already getting a better deal than the producers would ever offer.
"Buyer's Elective Reduction of Quantity. Buyer may elect to reduce the
initial Sale Oil quantity by giving Notice. The initial Sale Oil quantity shall remain as stated in for 12 Months after the Day of First Delivery. Notice of a reduction shall be delivered to the State at least six Months before the effective date of the reduction." http://www.dog.dnr.state.ak.us/oil/progr...
I would like to know how Flint Hills does their addition. The claim that they are paying a premium is complete BS. They are really paying about $5 less than market value since they are credited back the marine transportation and remaining 360 miles of pipeline transportation. Don't take my word, look at an actual sale invoice that I obtained from the State DNR. Even at $1 a barrel that is less than 2 cents per gallon. Hardly explains the current $1 a gallon gap that we have seen for the last 9 months.
http://www.fairbanksgas.com/INV_FHR10200...
Let them close. We have to pay for shiping aniway. Maybe heating oil from washington will be cheaper.
This morning:
Of the five companies that own the pipeline, three have requested a roughly 57 percent increase to their intrastate tariff, or the rate companies charge for delivering crude oil from the North Slope to refineries in the state.
One more company recently withdrew its request for a much larger increase but will most likely submit a revised filing to state regulators. The fifth owner recently told state regulators it doesn’t intend to request a rate increase this year.
The trans-Alaska oil pipeline is owned by BP, Conoco Phillips, Exxon Mobil, Unocal and Koch. Each company sets its own rates, so long as the five rates combined stay below a predetermined limit.
The companies typically file for new rates every year. But for the past five years, state regulators have rejected those filings because the companies calculated new rates using an old formula that the Regulatory Commission of Alaska struck down in 2002.
This year marks the first time the owners have calculated rates using the 2002 formula.
Separately, none of the five pipeline owners is seeking federal permission to raise its fees for carrying oil bound for Outside refineries. About 90 percent of North Slope production goes to refineries outside the state.
The size of these fees directly affect state revenue. The higher the rates are, the lower the taxable profit of North Slope producers and the lower the value of the oil Alaska receives as the oil-field land owner.
57 PERCENT JUMP
In the last three months of 2008, Conoco, Exxon and Koch used the 2002 formula to petition for increases of around 57 percent to their instate rates.
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska approved the higher Conoco and Exxon rates temporarily while it examines whether they are valid. The 2002 formula includes consideration of pipeline operation and maintenance costs, how much oil is flowing through and depreciation expenses.
Conoco and Exxon are charging $1.97 a barrel temporarily to carry oil from Prudhoe Bay to North Pole, up from $1.25. And their temporary rate for carrying oil all 800 miles to Valdez is $3.04 a barrel, up from $1.96.
The RCA is considering whether to approve the Koch increase.
The three companies say the increases are justified because oil flow through the pipeline has dropped nearly 30 percent since 2002 without an equal decrease in operating costs.
The pipeline moves some 750,000 barrels of oil per day, down from a peak of 2.1 million in 1988.
In late November, Unocal asked to double its in-state tariff. The company used a calculation based on a 1986 settlement with the state, not the 2002 formula.
In early-December, Koch originally proposed to more than triple its instate tariff, also using the 1986 formula. But the company also withdrew its request in mid-December, before eventually filing revised rates late in the month..
Henry---
Topping-plants are just evaporative distillation units that are in principle not much more complicated than a moonshine still.
Toppers are calibrated to the contents of the feedstock..
if the incoming crude contains certain percentages of lighter fractions [naptha, kerosene jet-fuel, octane/whitegasoline, cetane-diesel, etc.]
Microwave Gasification can greatly improve the efficiency of fractional-distillation...
http://www.globalresourcecorp.com/
A reconfigured refinery using this tech as an improved crud-heater would make old-man Koch's patent look stoneage.
Likewise if microwave-hydrocarbon/superheterodyne-hydrocarbon tech gets fully implemented it will stand the worldwide oil-industry on it's ear..
everything about oil/gas-field management will be revolutionized, no longer will N-slope producers need the gas to recover the oil.
TAPS can be efficiently heated every mile with klystrons, pump in heavy-crud at mile-0 and out comes salad-oil motor-oil at Valdez worth $200/bbl in last years market, but only $20/bbl in next years market because we have realized that "Peak Oil" was just an illusion..
and every "crisis" promulgated by the mass-media is just another facet of the same old mental-health crisis that has plagued mankind since day-one.
GTL tech will be profoundly improved too when researchers begin reading some of the recently published papers about RF-plasma induction over cermet-catalysts in hi&low-pressure endothermic gas-synthesis reactions.
BTL[biomass to liquids] and CTL[coal to liquids] will be reduced in scale to homeowner sized units you can buy to process your own trash into fuels. Toss in an old rubbertire and it will give you enough diesel to drive to work, enough syngas to heat and power your house for a day, all pollution free.
There used to be 3topping-plants at PS6,8,10 on TAPS, but they were closed down for various nefarious reasons. Some say they were poorly managed, etc blah blah... [cash for diesel, bring yer own barrels in your truck after sundown]
..some people didn't exercise enough self-control, and the govt bigwigs stepped in, then the populist-party was over.
Some say we wouldn't have cell-phones and the open-internet if MaBell's monopoly wasn't split up.
...what will the end of the OilyGOPoly provide world-culture?
A world without oxygen in the air?
Not too tough to figure out what is up. There are billions of barrels of known reserves that will eventually
one way or another, sooner or later, end up flowing down the pipeline. These companies are happy to invest as many millions in white collar manipulation as they are in getting the oil. Do they have it all pencilled out(spreadsheet) as to what their probable eventual gain is opposed to cost of this? Why would they not? In the business of spending billions to make billions of course they do. They like the heavy foot forward approach and then say push me back. It works. But does it have to be this way? This is where a
Federal presence does come in. Just like they are having to clean up our political scene they are going to have to step in and put the source of the corruption in its place. Sooner rather than later.
If the bank would loan me the money I'd buy it at a fair price and try to create fair gas prices for everyone here. Maybe I could get a loan to buy the oil fields too. I doubt it though, we might as well let foreign companies own alaska. I worked on the slope for 5 years, while up there i worked for foreign exploration companies who hired locals for the lower paid jobs. and imported the higher paid jobs. Lets continue to support them. I think our banks should support locals who would like to start businesses here. Not just rich people from outside.
They (the 2 Koch brother owners) easily have the money to do the upgrades needed to keep the North Pole refinery tecnologically & legally current. 100 million was promised as a condition of the original purchase. Their literature quotes their father: A promise made is a debt unpaid.
They have yet to pay their debt & are working feverishly to renege.
Now read about how an equal sum is to be donated to the Lincoln Center in NYC so it can be renamed the Koch Center. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/arts/1...
They just choose not to make the necessary local investment, even though the refinery management were grinning like the Cheshire Cat the first few years over how much money the refinery was earning. It helped fund the Koch buying spreee that pushed them to #1 largest private company in the world.
It's very simple. The refinery can be run for the benefit of (a) 2/3 of a million Alaskans or (b) 2 Koch billionaire owners. It would be nice if incentives could be aligned into a win-win but history shows this is not the case & the 2 owners have gamed it into a win-lose, with us the losers.
I'll repeat myself; It has been decided by these robber barons and their sycophants that us Alaskan peasants will drive on E & shiver in the cold so our wealth can hemorrhage south to enrich the Kochs.
It's such a shame because there is more than enough for everyone, but apparently the Koch bros don;t see it that way & we all know the Golden Rule: Those with the gold make the rules.
P.S.
For info on the proposed 28th Amendment (Corporations are Not people)
go to:
FYI, the Book TV program is posted at: http://www.booktv.org/watch.aspx?Program...
amend@rikiott.com
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43...
...errr, I gotta quit going to THAT espresso stand !!!
must be coffee beans from another planet???
Hey Distant Thunder don't stop man. Our newspapers are so far behind on even noting what development we already have let alone what we could have it isn't funny. Like that we already have a natural gas pipeline that goes to the top of Atigun Pass.
Like how they have had the ability and the technology to bring enough gas to supply Fairbanks and the Bases via the Transalaska Pipeline for the last ten years.
There are so many great articles out there that could be written. And there is no law that says the Newsminer can't buy articles from the petroleum journals and outside papers.
sosorry...
OK, let's just start by stretching a 1" polypipe gasline from PS4 to Chandalar Shelf on the south side of Atigun-- 27miles.
Can anybody remember exactly why the fuelgasline to PS4 starts out as 10"pipe, then is reduced to 8"pipe with a different pig-port for each pipe?
horse-snicker... you think I should be sympathetic to DOD-bases for access to gas?
The Army-Brass at Ladd-Field told James Dalton that they thought passing gas from Gubik was stupid and they were only interested in coal heat.
One of my hobbies is making BigBrass cry like babies.
[it terrifies them to look in a mirror]
"How to Identify a Communist" by Joseph McCarthy
Oddly enough, Russia has cut natural gas supplies to Europe, therefore, Europe is approaching a deep freeze. Apparently, due to the price cut in gasoline, Russia can't afford to keep up production. There's also the rumor that people are syphoning gas from the pipeline in remote spots.
With Russia stepping down from natural gas production, one might wonder "why" Alaska isn't rushing to fill the world void.
I see gasoline hikes as the only way to salvage the failing oil industry. With a few million US workers out of work, who can afford gas?
MamaSan...
I'm part Russi-Uke -- many of my cousins died in the holomodor-famine of '32. Gazprom is trying to improve it's efficiency but has a long way to go. BigOil-worldwide is it's own worst problem.
It's in BigOil's best interest to fight BigAuto's lack of efficiency pushing gas-guzzlers that get 15-20% fuel-efficiency and not 90% fuel-efficiency.
Too Big is just that--
Just too damn big.
BigOil should be the ones to bailout BigAuto.
BigAuto cannot compete with the new retro-fit industry done by independents--
http://www.lincvolt.com/
...it's the little guy who will make the gas-guzzlers get 50-100mpg.
Yeah, pilferage by the public happens everywhere..
even people stealing freswhater from water pipes, and electricity from powerlines. People even steal money from the money pipe, they're called "friends of politicians" or "stockbrokers" or just plain "professionals"... it's all a silly game needing to be balanced with tolerance but guarded with vigilance. This is proof Humans are closely related to Rats.
Alaska can fill the void for Gazproms fumbling in Europe, but shoving gas over the top is misdirected effort..
we could do much better cooperation with Gazprom if we get as gassed as Yeltsin and do a Nikita Khruschev parody...
"Alexei Miller !!! We will bury you in polypipe !!! "
[Nikita was a funny guy who grew up on a farm]
Ukraine and Bulgaria have options they aren't using too--
they can be borrowing the coal-gas/coalwater technology from China..
..and China got some of that knowledge from a guy who lives in Fairbanks...
...and Fairbanks is worse off than the Ukrainians because most of the BTU's used by the population is still firewood.
..imagine that, in Big Boastful World Stuporpower USA,
and I can see in satellite photos the woodlots around Fairbanks looking like a decimated Brazilian Rainforest...
..while trillions of cubefeet of LostOrphan gas gets lost to the 4winds all over Alaska, and there's 10tcf of overlooked gas within 50miles of town, and 100tcf within 200miles.
Nobody really needs Big-Biz to run the show.
..as Soverign Humans we all need to continuously strive for self-sufficiency and decentralization of architecture.
East-West,North-South our institutions are always failing us, and as well they should, because perfection is absolute and only attainable by the evolving individual.
My grandfather walked out of the Ukraine in 1899, barefoot in winter he walked northwest to Germany.. he was a contemporary of Nestor Makhno. While milking the cows at 4am he told me about how he felt about his perished cousins who did not "vote with their feet" like he did.
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