February 2013

Doyon Limited Pioneers Frontier Basins

The state’s latest oil and gas exploration incentive program, dubbed Frontier Basins, is also known as Middle Earth. Set aside fantastical images of J.R.R. Tolkien’s world of hobbits and elves. This Middle Earth earned the name for its general location between existing incentive programs for oil and gas production on the North Slope and Cook Inlet—and state officials and potential oil and gas producers hope this Middle Earth is very real.

By Zaz Hollander

Disaster Assistance Deadlines

The clock is ticking to apply for low-interest federal disaster loans for physical and economic damages suffered due to certain storms occurring last fall in Alaska.

All the Right Stuff

Alaska is in something of a “sweet spot” these days as we benefit from what I call the “Three Rights” of export success: We are in the Right Place, at the Right Time, with the Right Commodities.

By Greg Wolf

Southeast Asia New Markets—New Customers

Southeast Asian countries are sometimes more familiar to adventure travelers than to business people—but they are filled with opportunities for Alaskan companies to do business.

By Alex Salov

Trans-Pacific Partnership

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is an Asia-Pacific regional free trade agreement currently under negotiation between the United States and about a dozen countries surrounding the Pacific Ocean.

By Aaron Weddle

Alaska’s North Slope and LNG

When the first modern shale well was drilled a couple of miles north of Fort Worth, Texas in the late-1990s, few would have believed what a global energy market game-changer it would turn out to be barely a decade removed.

By Sourabh Gupta and Ashok Roy

Building Innovations in Alaska

2012 was an exciting year for Alaska on the building front.

By Rindi White

Winter Construction in Fairbanks

It’s high noon on a gloomy mid-winter’s day. The sun has just managed to clear the snowy peaks of the mountains 100 miles to the south and cars navigate the icy streets through a sea of ice fog. It’s 40 below zero and the air is thick and bitter. Welcome to a typical winter workday in Fairbanks, Alaska.

By Julie Stricker

Self-Insured Health Benefit Plans

In our modern times, with the dawning of what will surely be a complicated transition into The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) and many Americans feeling ultimately failed by the insurance industry, employers are looking for viable solutions to what many feel is a fundamentally flawed system.

By Mari Gallion