Oil patch insider: Oil revenues collected by state of Alaska total $185B; new BLM head is champion of public lands access

Kay Cashman

Petroleum News

A recent Rigzone article reported that since statehood in 1959, the oil industry has given the state of Alaska approximately $185 billion in revenues, funding as much as 90% of the state’s unrestricted General Fund.

“‘Black Gold’ has supplied 33 percent of Alaska’s jobs and more than 50 percent of the overall economy,” the international online resource for oil and gas news, jobs and data reported July 29.

Unfortunately, the author didn’t understand the current North Slope renaissance, describing remaining light oil conventional reserves as being challenging to develop and in “small and remote” fields, giving the impression they were all far from infrastructure.

The article also reported that “Alaska’s greatest oil days are behind it.” The major Nanushuk (informally referred to as the Narwhal) discovered by Armstrong, Repsol, and ConocoPhillips and being developed by Oil Search and ConocoPhillips disproves that statement.

Finally, Rigzone’s headline, “LNG Could be a Lifeline for Alaska's Struggling Oil Industry” and the sentence in the body of the story, “The real energy potential for the state is in exporting natural gas via LNG,” are blatantly untrue.

That sentence would be more accurate if it said, “A future source of revenue for the state might be in exporting natural gas via LNG.”

Still the article is an interesting read.

- KAY CASHMAN

New acting BLM head is champion of public lands access

Environmentalists, however, are critical of Pendley’s appointment because of his belief public lands should be accessible to Americans for multiple uses, including recreation, oil, gas and minerals production and ranching.

A native of Wyoming, Pendley is a Marine veteran, attorney and worked at Interior under President Ronald Reagan. Prior to his appointment he served as BLM deputy director of policy and programs.

He was president of the Colorado-based Mountain States Legal Foundation for three decades. The foundation is a non-profit, public interest law firm that defends the constitution, protects property rights, and advances economic liberty, per its website. They litigate cases at no cost to their clients, taking cases all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.

Pendley has argued for selling off a lot of public lands, and written books accusing federal authorities and environmentalists of “tyranny” and “waging war on the West.”

A recent Associated Press article reported that in tweets this summer, Pendley welcomed Trump administration moves to open more federal land to mining, oil and gas development and other private business uses, and said he has called oil and gas well hydraulic fracturing “an energy, economic, and environmental miracle.”

The editorial board at the Minnesota Sentinel wrote, there has been “something of a recent tempest” in Washington, D.C., following Pendley’s appointment.

“Conservation groups object. But, so what? Is there only one valid perspective when it comes to federal lands? Is a person not allowed to have the opinion that citizens, not government, should own these lands? Why? Reading press reports on the situation, one has the impression that there is an environmental ‘gospel’ according to some that the rest of us must believe or be labeled infidels,” the Sentinel said.

“We do not believe every acre of public lands, primarily in the West, must be sold or opened up to production. But we do believe that the first choice should be to turn over as much federal land as possible to the public. Why does the government need all that land? We live in a nation founded on private property rights and free enterprise. We wish Pendley good luck in advocating for major changes.”

Pendley will be in place until the Senate confirms a permanent director.

- KAY CASHMAN