Oil patch insider: Logan touts Alaska O&G Historical
Soc.; ConocoPhillips ready to go
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Kay Cashman Petroleum News
In March 29 interview with Petroleum News, Rebecca Logan, CEO of the Alaska Support Industry Alliance, said the “end game” of the newly formed Alaska Oil & Gas Historical Society is a physical museum.
Logan and other Alliance members helped form the new non-profit.
“Alaska is the only oil-producing state that doesn’t have a historical society,” she said.
To date the non-profit corporation’s articles of incorporation have been filed and its 501(c)3 status and by-laws approved.
Board members are Joe Mathis, Brad Chastain, Dave Norton, Dave Myers (Alliance representative), Kara Moriarty (AOGA representative), and Dave Haugen. Eventually the society’s board is expected to have 15 members.
“In our first year we will be focused on founding members, collecting papers, pictures, books and the most important project will be our oral history project. We are working with the University of Alaska-Fairbanks on that project,” Logan said.
“A lot of the people we want to interview are in their 90s. UAF has a fantastic oral history department, so they are going to be doing most of work. We’ll give them the names of the people we want interviewed and they’ll do the interviews, editing and archive.”
In the first two years the society will be working on several things, some of which are as follows:
- Begin collecting previously recorded or in-person oral history from industry pioneers.
- Establish the long-term membership scheme and solicit donations.
- Secure an Anchorage-based facility for temporary storage and archiving the collection.
- Hire an archivist to implement the society’s system for CRM and cataloging of the collection
The Alaska Oil & Gas Historical Society is a membership organization. To sign up go to https://akoghs.org/membership.
And check out the website at https://akoghs.org.
- KAY CASHMAN
ConocoPhillips stands ready at Willow ConocoPhillips Alaska is currently building ice roads for Willow construction, spokesperson Rebecca Boys told Petroleum News March 28.
“In order to accommodate the court process, we have agreed not to commence activities at the mine until April 4, 2023, unless the court issues a decision denying the plaintiffs’ motions before that date.”
How long will it take to gear-up at the gravel mine once and if ConocoPhillips receives clearance to do so?
“We will be ready to begin operations at the gravel site/mine immediately following the court decision. We have equipment and personnel standing by ready to begin work,” Boys said.
As previously reported, on March 13, the U.S. Interior Department issued a record of decision for the Willow oil project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, denying two of the five drill sites proposed by ConocoPhillips, but allowing development with three sites. (At its peak Willow is expected to produce 180,000 barrels of oil a day.)
On March 14, three lawsuits were filed in opposition to the project. The plaintiffs asked for an injunction to halt construction until the cases are decided.
U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason said she would try to have a decision by April 3 on whether to temporarily halt construction of Willow.
Interior’s decision drew praise from ConocoPhillips, labor unions, Alaska’s Legislature and its congressional delegation, as well as Native and North Slope entities, such as Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, North Slope Borough, Iñupiat Community of the Arctic Slope and Arctic Slope Regional Corp.
The Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat is a nonprofit organization established in 2015 by the region’s collective Iñupiat leadership to speak with a unified voice on issues impacting the North Slope Iñupiat, their communities, their economy and their culture. Its members include local government, business, tribal and civil society across the North Slope.
Nagruk Harcharek, president of Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, said there is “majority consensus” in the region in favor of the project, calling Willow a “lifeline” for residents.
The Legislature and Alaska’s congressional delegation have jointly filed an amicus brief to offer their perspective to the judge.
“We are working hard to get the judge to hear our voices - literally collectively, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Alaskans - to convince her that this project going forward, of course, abides by the law, but is strongly in the public interest,” U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said.
- KAY CASHMAN
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