Oil patch insider: Walsh resigns as oil, gas director; Oil Search moving to BP building
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Kay Cashman Petroleum News
Chantal Walsh has resigned as director of the state of Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas, effective March 1. She is leaving for personal reasons, as she is needed at Petrotechnical Resources of Alaska, or PRA, a consulting firm she and her husband Tom Walsh co-founded in 1997.
James “Jim” Beckham, deputy director of the division, will be staying, Walsh told Petroleum News Feb. 13,
A life-long Alaskan, Walsh joined the division as director on Nov. 28, 2016.
“It has been my honor to serve the state of Alaska. It has been an amazing experience,” she said.
“There are not a lot of people who give their heart and soul to their jobs,” but her employees at the division do, she said.
“They are dedicated and devoted professionals who take their work at the division very seriously,” Walsh said.
- KAY CASHMAN
Oil Search leases 2 floors from BP in Anchorage While ramping up its Alaska workforce from three in March 2018 to its current100, Oil Search has also been outgrowing its office space in the Peterson towers in downtown Anchorage.
As a result, the independent has signed a three-year lease for two floors in the BP building on the corner of Benson and the Seward Highway in mid-town.
“The move addresses not only our growing space needs, but also health and wellness, security and parking. We have the fifth and sixth floors,” Amy Burnett, Anchorage-based manager of U.S. media and communications for Oil Search, told Petroleum News Feb. 11.
The company’s top Alaska executive Keiran Wulff had previously told Petroleum News that he expected the number of employees in the Anchorage office to increase to approximately 200 by the time that the front-end engineering and design, or FEED, process for Oil Search’s first Nanushuk development at Pikka begins on the North Slope.
“To address immediate space needs, there are a number of employees moving during the first half of February,” Burnett said. “Some renovation is being done to the space. We anticipate the remainder of the Anchorage staff will move in late March.”
Following a commitment to construction, there will likely be some 800 people working on the project on the North Slope, Wulff said, with the potential for first oil from the Pikka unit flowing in 2023.
- KAY CASHMAN
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