Bad News Bear

Once again, with the mediocre and luke warm news' coverage upon important issues here in the “Last Frontier”, that coverage never tells it like it is so these “important” things fall by the wayside their true identity crisis – the true meaning of what is really happening around the state goes underground. Importance finds impotence. And these are the issues that should have front and center attention – instead of an on-line 2 seconds claim to famine. Look, read the writing on the drill bit's bore hole wall, Great Bear is a bust! With the best time of year to drill, to explore, this outfit that wants to bring shale relief to the Trans-Alaska-Pipeline, it's a so far “BUST” and Mr. Duncan is closing down the operation for the season. Is Hailburton involved in this venture? How much does the Cheney Estate plan to make on “Frac Chemical” sales? Look again, as in North Dakota, wherein the infrastructure is still prehistoric and Neanderthal like, where roads are few and far between, where rough-neck camps find gender harassment like occurred during the construction days of Alaska's one and only successful project – the one the state stayed away from – well in that neck of the woods a shale well can be producing in 45-days. No pipeline, and like already mentioned roads that are sub-standard and not to mention parts and materials in short supply - wherein a sheet of plywood can fetch $200 bucks - even if used! No wonder some of Alaska's oil & gas companies are running that way – something is happening and delays are not an option! As we spend years planning, others are acting – which means we loose out again. How many years has a natural gas pipeline been in the planning stage here in the “Lunatic Frontier”? So this delay tactic with shale development on Alaska's North Slope, it is based out of the fact that Great Bear is embarrassed to tell us the truth and nothing but the truth so help me Sarah! The rock samples suck and indicating not only a dry hole, but traces of past hydrocarbons are missing. And this is a venture that has road access and a pipeline to market just a few feet away already. Talk about the carriage ahead of the horse! So what gives, maybe somebody - like a spy - must have held the seismology charts up-side-down or maybe the GPS was out of calibration and “X marks the spot” was a mistake. Get the picture, as “Big Oil” employs spies, to infiltrate and when “in” it is like a bad virus on a network – shit happens! It's a “BUST”, always was and always will be. See, any newcomer on the “slope” should realize one all important thing. If “Big Oil” isn't doing it, that is the main reason to stay away from it. Case in point: Pioneer Natural Resources is still 4-years behind predictions in getting its Oooguruk Island prospect up running to a production goal that was once upon a time an interest to the stockholders. Why the failures so far? These were leases that held the majors' oil exploitation interests many years ago, like EXXON and ARCO, until the geologist said “stay away”! Sure there was oil in them thar samples, but too damn expensive and risky to stake it out. So “Big Oil” let the leases lapse, then along came....The only reason PNR has not packed up and moved south, it is called “Royalty Relief”. Yes, the state is very lenient this venture, as it was supposed to be the saving grace for the Palin then Parnell legacy, in efforts to fill back up the TAPS. I'm still laughing and you should be also, as this was indeed another “pipe dream” come true! What the chumps in office failed too see, the pipeline owners have reconfigured that line and it can no longer handle what it once pumped. The Golden Goose days are over with! Matter of fact, Dear Sean, how many pumping stations have been mothballed? Don't hold your breath that we will ever see again 2-million barrels a day coming south – once again said with sadness, the golden years are behind us! Now take that royalty relief away from the Pioneer, and this outfit will be out of Dodge faster then Great Bear has ceased its drilling operation for this season. A dry hole can get creditors moving towards insolvency in high gear. Didn't we hear the same damn lame excuse from Big Bear's Duncan same time last year? Stockholders beware is my sentiment. And how many times is it going to take to get it right? I am talking the snow-slides of Turnagain Pass taking out the overhead high-voltage electrical lines. Once again, the electric utility must secure money from the legislature for repair work. Good thing the concessions begin in January – no not a typo as the “In Session” is nothing more then a vacation for these erectile dysfunctional officials away from their families. And this “power line failure”, it happens every year – like clockwork right around Christmas time – maybe something to do with overtime pay. And it ain't rocket science here, traversing rugged country with poles and wire, to light up the Seward “Red Light” district. Look, we have overhead lines going through “Thompson's Pass” - talk about a nightmare! We have a rail-belt grid, with power lines going through “Hell's Canyon”, yet these erections survive the brutal Alaskan winters - time after time after time. Once again, we set our priorities on kindling, and like a broken record, we hear it again and again and again. Where's the power? Sad, as if we decided to do it right the first time, like every other respectable state, we would be way ahead of things. That saying, “Do it Right the First Time”, is but a suggestion here in the 49er, just like a traffic light. Fortunately, we can only place blame upon our legislatures, as they require us do things akin to a 3^rd world state – and well known today is the fact that the band-aid approach is a wasteful approach. Can they really be that “dumb”? I hope NOT. So it ain't out of stupidity, as we have the money, we have the knowhow, we just have this inkling to fail. Like this is what it's all about. Failure! The same with the “Oil Taxation” debacle which is once again a center stage duke-out down in Juneau – about to go ballistic when the erectile dysfunction caucus meets again in January. See, why does Pioneer enjoy “Royalty Relief” at a 5% discount, when right next door to the Oooguruk Island Piss Ant settlement is a Conoco lease that takes in 16.5% royalty for the state coffers? In simple terms, that's why “Big Oil” is doing nothing extra to help out this state. Think about it, as for every $100-dollar barrel of oil sold today, “Big Oil” pays their way at $28 a whack and the little guys – still crying in front of the ED caucus – hand over how much? Yes, 1/8^th that amount. No wonder “Big Oil” gets pissed! So that is what it's all about today on the Alaskan scene, an unfair system that is strangling the very effort that could and wants to do more to promote continued interest on Alaska's North Slope. Not Big Bear, Not Pioneer, Eni or Rasputin Blow Out Specialty Company, it is “Big Oil” that was and is the saving grace of this state. We must start to cater to “Big Oil”, or else we will continue to see more of the same stagnation. Look, had we been fair, when the state decided to go where no respectable state official had gone before and offered the “slime line” relief, “Big Oil” would have already built a natural gas pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Anchorage, to feed any shantytown in between with affordable energy. So Big Bear has no intent on ever striking it rich, but holding out in efforts to smooze the legislature some more – for what is still in the jury hands. But we all know it will have strings and $$$ attached! In the end, this mentality stabs us right in the back. Big Oil is here to stay, but only if we are fair. Today, with the ”Independents” moving in, crying and getting their way, we continue to loose out our resource wealth. Here it is in a nutshell. Give “Big Oil” a break like the “Independents” enjoy – by lowering the royalty on legacy wells! Give EXXON, British Petroleum and ConocoPhillips the same aadvantage we give Joe UselessBelli and instead of high theft royalty and taxation out-of-bounds due preferential treatment, how about lowering the take to the state to the same margin enjoyed by the mining interests – like 3%. Or like the Prego Mine, 1.5% take! Look, we are giving away our gold at Macy like bargain basement prices. Look, we can do without the PFD, as if we give in to a lowered royalty to the oil industry, that in itself will create thousands of jobs and that should be the numero uno reason that wakes up the giant, wherein even though we have failed miserably the last 35-years to succeed at a solid and sustainable jobs infrastructure – we owe it to ourselves to get it right, right now without haste. Even if it means giving in to “Big Oil”. They have the know how and they have time on their side – we don't. And maybe while we are at it, ask them to build some power lines through Turnagain that last, believe me they could get it done and we would never again hear about failure and the Red Light districts would flourish once again. Bottom-line, the way this state orchestrates things as was done yesterday, today and the future could see the same damn pathetic reasoning, good thing it is on the wings of a legislative giveaway program - as no viable business could get away with it. Yet the freeloaders think that this state is desperate and will do anything to entice, yes more erectile dysfunction when it comes to legislation that benefits from the latter.