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Organizers cancel petrochem conference Anchorage event succumbs to tough economy, tight travel budgets among chemical company executives Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
Organizers of a planned late September conference on potential for an Alaska petrochemical industry using the state’s abundant natural gas said the global recession forced them to cancel the event.
The problem was a lack of commitments from chemical industry players to attend the conference, said Bill Popp, president and chief executive of the Anchorage Economic Development Corp.
“We just couldn’t overcome the current tight budgets and cost constraints that chemical companies are currently operating under,” Popp said in an Aug. 25 e-mail to Petroleum News. “We have seen even a few long-running chemical industry conferences being canceled this year. It was just too tough of a situation to overcome at this late date.”
The Alaska Natural Gas Value-Added Manufacturers Conference had been scheduled for Sept. 29-30 at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in downtown Anchorage.
The Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority, a small state agency voters created in 2002 to pursue a North Slope natural gas pipeline, was sponsoring the event and had given the AEDC a $250,000 grant to pull it together, Popp said.
Alternate plan The conference was designed to lure global petrochemical companies to Alaska. Organizers planned to tout the North Slope’s known 35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and its potential as feedstock for petrochemical manufacturing in Southcentral Alaska.
Much of the grant money is still available, and conference organizers now plan a road show to take Alaska’s gas message to chemical companies, especially as potential Alaska gas pipeline builders prepare for open seasons next year.
“We’re going to visit them in their corporate headquarters,” Popp said. “If we can’t get the mountain to come to us, we’re going to the mountain.”
“We’ve identified the right opportunities and right partners for Alaska natural gas,” said ANGDA chief executive Harold Heinze, who made the call to cancel the conference. “We’ll spend the next few weeks developing an alternative game plan to gain the attention of the value-added manufacturing industry. It would have been nice to show off Alaska from the home field, but manufacturers have tightened belts recently and aren’t traveling as much for conferences and industry events.”
Governor supported event A draft conference agenda Popp provided to Petroleum News indicates some chemical industry consultants had committed as speakers at the conference.
Others also appeared committed, including Alaska’s congressional delegation and executives for two companies, TransCanada Corp. and the Denali partnership of BP and ConocoPhillips, which are pursuing North Slope gas pipeline projects.
Several top state officials including Gov. Sean Parnell, Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin, Revenue Commissioner Pat Galvin and others also were listed as speakers on the agenda. But the word “invited” was next to each name.
Parnell and the commissioners have offices in the Atwood Building, only a few steps from the Dena’ina convention center.
Popp insisted state officials supported the conference and that cancellations or lack of commitments on their part played no role in dropping the conference.
“That was not a reason,” Popp said. “The speakers list was very strong. We felt we had the support of the governor and administration for the event.”
Parnell spokeswoman Sharon Leighow told Petroleum News: “Gov. Parnell had expressed interest in speaking to the group, but nothing was chiseled in stone.”
Leighow said conference invitations from the governor also had been prepared, but organizers advised holding them because the event was being canceled.
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