Bristol Bay looks to oil and gas for economic diversification

Representatives from Bristol Bay and the Alaska Peninsula, in Anchorage for the Alaska Federation of Natives annual convention, met with Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski and members of his cabinet to discuss progress on proposed oil and gas exploration and development in their area, an effort designed to diversity the area’s fishing economy, hard hit in recent years.

Robin Samuelson of the Bristol Bay region told the audience that the process began shortly after the governor was elected, when a few people in the region decided they had to have help — and turned to Gov. Murkowski. After five or six years of fishing disasters, he said, communities and schools were closing, and city and borough governments were running out of money.

The governor took up the challenge and has a number of commissioners working on it, including Commissioner of Natural Resources Tom Irwin, who told the group that a preliminary best interest finding for a proposed Bristol Bay exploration license will be out for public review in January, with a final determination next summer. The Division of Oil and Gas presented the program in communities in October, he said, and once the preliminary finding is out, they will come back to the communities again for local input.

Editor’s note: see full story in Nov. 2 issue.