IOGCC holds spring meeting in Anchorage; focus on natural gas

The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission will be holding its midyear meeting, focused on “New Sources of Natural Gas,” in Anchorage in May.

Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski is the current chairman of the IOGCC, and John Norman, chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, is the IOGCC vice chairman.

Norman told Petroleum News that 200 to 300 high-level regulators are expected to attend the meeting, May 15-18 at the Hotel Captain Cook, as well as governors of several states. A good turnout from Canada is also expected.

The emphasis of this meeting will be on “new or unconventional sources of natural gas,” he said, including liquefied natural gas, gas hydrates and shale gas.

Gov. Murkowski will open the May 16 public session. An agenda is available on the IOGCC Web page at http://www.iogcc.state.ok.us/

The IOGCC, created in 1935, represents the governors of 37 states that produce virtually all the domestic oil and natural gas in the United States. International affiliates include the major Canadian producing provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, as well as Venezuela, Egypt and the Republic of Georgia.

The organization facilitates exchanges of views with industry as well as representing producing states in Congress, Norman said. Its focus is conservation, and it publishes reports of use to states on issues such as plugging and abandoning orphan wells and also has built and maintains a model conservation act.

—Kristen Nelson