State to put North Slope royalty gas out to bid

Kristen Nelson

Alaska Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Pat Pourchot said Oct. 24 that the state is going to start the process to put its North Slope royalty gas out for bid.

Pourchot was welcoming participants to the state's areawide North Slope and Beaufort Sea oil and gas lease sales. He said that since there were so many people present with an interest in the state's oil and gas resources, "I wanted to take this opportunity to make an announcement of something else that we are about ready to pursue. And that's a possible sale of natural gas, the state's natural gas royalty gas."

Pourchot said that all of the interest in development of a gas pipeline from the North Slope "has led to a number of companies … inquiring of the state about the availability of the state's royalty gas" for in state and out of state use should a gas pipeline be developed and the gas be available.

There is a process laid down by the Legislature that the state must follow, and within the next couple of days, he said, the state will be announcing the start of that process and a timeline for pursuing royalty gas sales.

It is, he said, a public process and involves preliminary and best interest findings, presentations to the royalty board and then approval by the state Legislature.