Norman reappointed to commission

John Norman has been reappointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission by Gov. Sarah Palin. The six-year term expires in 2015.

Norman was appointed to the public seat on the three-member commission by Gov. Frank Murkowski in January 2004, succeeding Palin, who served on the commission from February 2003 through January 2004.

Norman, an Anchorage attorney, also replaced Palin as the commission’s chair, a rotating position currently held by Dan Seamount, the geologist on the commission.

Prior to his appointment to the commission Norman had been with the law firm of Hartig Rhodes Hoge & Lekisch, where he was a founding partner and shareholder, since 1971. He was an assistant attorney general with Alaska’s natural resource section prior to joining Hartig Rhodes and an exploration representative for Skelly Oil in Alaska and Texas from 1967-68.

Norman was admitted to the bar in Missouri in 1964, in Alaska in 1969 and at the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972. He holds law and geology degrees from the University of Missouri.

The commission oversees oil and gas drilling, development and production, reservoir depletion and metering operations on all lands subject to the state’s police powers. An independent, quasi-judicial agency of the State of Alaska, the commission acts to prevent waste, protect correlative rights, improve ultimate recovery and protect underground freshwater.

—Petroleum News