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ConocoPhillips withdraws from AOGA Celebrating its 40th anniversary, trade association representing oil and gas companies operating in Alaska loses founding member Kay Cashman & Alan Bailey Petroleum News
ConocoPhillips is withdrawing from membership in the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, the trade association that represents oil and gas companies operating in the Alaska.
“ConocoPhillips has its own department of regulatory, communications and government relations staff and feels that they can cover much of the advocacy work being done now by AOGA on behalf of our company,” ConocoPhillips spokeswoman Dawn Patience told Petroleum News. “… We still believe that AOGA plays an important role in public policy discussions for the oil and gas industry. ConocoPhillips will continue to look at oil and gas issues on a case-by-case basis to determine if we could coordinate those activities with AOGA.”
AOGA Executive Director Judy Brady expressed her disappointment with the ConocoPhillips decision.
“I think we will get it all worked out. ConocoPhillips is a valuable member,” Brady told Petroleum News.
“It’s our 40th anniversary which we have been celebrating all year. ARCO and now ConocoPhillips has certainly been part of that and we hope it will be part of AOGA in the future. … We’re the only single-state oil and gas association in the country.”
AOGA’s mission is to focus on the long-term viability of all aspects of the oil and gas industry in Alaska and the organization’s member companies represent the majority of oil and gas exploration, production, transportation, refining and marketing activities in the state. The membership includes a broad mix of companies, ranging from major oil producers to companies primarily engaged in exploration, Brady said. AOGA has been involved with the multi-billion-dollar state oil taxation debate and continues to support the development of a North Slope gas pipeline.
Unprecedented stress a factor With just 17 members, competitive stresses between member companies can arise.
“There are competitive issues among our companies which produce a lot of stress — a very big amount stress — in an organization that is as small as ours,” Brady said.
But Brady thinks that, overall, AOGA’s members have succeeded in finding a common voice.
“I think the companies have done an outstanding job of finding areas of agreement and speaking with one voice on those areas of agreement,” Brady said. “And it’s important that they do so both for the industry and for the state. It would just be impossible to call 17 companies and say, ‘what do you think?’”
But with the loss of a major member, will AOGA have to cut back on any of its activities or staff?
“We don’t know yet,” Brady said. “The board’s going to be looking at that in November, but just like a company when you have loss of revenue you look at what you can do to replace that revenue and what you can do to bring the budget in line.”
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