Division of Oil and Gas asks for money for best interest findings

Should the Legislature spend money now so that the state can make money in the future? That’s the question legislators will be asked to answer when looking at a request from the Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas for money to privatize gathering of baseline data for best interest findings — the first step in exploration.

Ken Boyd, oil and gas division director, said Feb. 24 at the state’s North Slope areawide sale that the division has asked the Legislature for more money this year. “Not a lot of money,” he said, “but a couple hundred thousand dollars.” That money would be used to contract out for the gathering of raw data for Interior basins. The division would start with a best interest finding for the Copper River basin, where it has applications for exploration licenses.

Once a best interest finding is done for the Copper River basin, Boyd said, the division would like to move on to Interior basin best interest findings on a speculative basis, and would, he said, be looking for input from the industry as to which Interior basis should be done next, for example the Holitna or Minchumina basins.

The state would do the actual best interest finding — it would just contract out for information fathering. “All we’re asking for is the money to gather data.” Findings would then be available, Boyd said, “and if somebody does want to come in with a license application, you don’t have to wait a year a half for us to finish a finding.”