Alaska’s PSIO completes staff hiring

The Petroleum System Integrity Office has completed its recruitment efforts, PSIO Coordinator Jonne Slemons told Petroleum News Nov. 14.

Slemons said Dan Rice, PE, was hired in July as PSIO’s lead technical engineer, bringing to PSIO more than 10 years of experience with the State Pipeline Coordinator’s Office where he had technical oversight of common carrier, gathering and flowlines on the North Slope and in Southcentral, and on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and its fuel gas pipeline.

Steve Schmitz was hired in September. Schmitz has been the lead North Slope permitter within the Division of Oil and Gas — the agency where PSIO is housed — for 17 years. Slemons said Schmitz brings “invaluable first-hand knowledge and experience” to PSIO’s North Slope activities.

Mike Engblom-Bradley will be joining the PSIO team in mid-February as the lead quality assurance authority. Slemons said Engblom-Bradley has owned a quality control business and developed quality assurance programs; he currently manages the quality assurance program for Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.

PSIO is working on Phase I of the statutory and regulatory gap analysis, Slemons said. A list of current statutory and regulatory authorities is being compiled. State and federal agencies will review the list for completeness and will also be asked for “feedback on how those authorities are exercised,” Slemons said.

“Subsequent phases of the gap analysis will build upon the information compiled and provided in the Phase I process, to identify and clarify gaps in oversight, propose alternatives to address them and proceed to resolution,” she said.

The process will also identify any duplication in efforts.

—Kristen Nelson