Engineering firms chase opportunity in Alaska: HIGH OIL PRICES: Fluor, other heavyweights expand ..

[struggle4progress]

.. in state
Friday, August 29, 2008; Posted: 05:10 PM

Aug 29, 2008 (Anchorage Daily News - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX)

Competition is heating up among major engineering and construction companies chasing a piece of major oil, mining and government projects in Alaska ...

Alaska's oil fields are humming on the strength of crude running well north of $100 a barrel, and proposed megaprojects such as a $30 billion natural gas pipeline and the Donlin Creek and Pebble gold mines drawing a lot of buzz, said Neal Fried, a state labor economist ...

Michael Pears, a Fluor senior vice president, said .... no specific project, such as the gas pipeline, prompted Fluor to open an office here ...

"A hundred dollars a barrel drives a lot of projects," Pears said.

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1853514/

So high oil prices are driving the Alaskan economy and Palin's approval correspondingly reflect that fact