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Governor introduces three oil and gas leasing, right-of-way bills
Petroleum News
Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski has introduced three bills intended to assist the state’s oil and gas leasing and development programs.
The measures, introduced Jan. 14, could help advance the governor’s plans for leasing in the Bristol Bay area of Southwest Alaska and ensure that the Department of Natural Resources is able to continue signing agreements so that it can be reimbursed for its preliminary work on oil and gas pipeline right-of-way lease applications.
Senate Bill 264 would repeal the Dec. 31, 2003, sunset provision in state law for such reimbursable services agreements between Natural Resources and pipeline right-of-way applicants. Failure to adopt the legislation extending the department’s authority would leave it without funding for the pre-application review work, which, according to the department, could delay final application reviews.
Without preliminary review of land issues, the governor said in submitting the bill to lawmakers, “Incomplete applications or applications that must be revised later are costly … (and) create delays that could cost a producer the construction season.” Two bills to assist with Bristol Bay leasing The governor’s Senate Bill 266 would close certain lands in the Bristol Bay region to oil and gas exploration licensing and shallow gas leasing, thereby holding back the acreage for the administration’s planned, large-scale competitive lease sale in the area.
“Closure avoids potential conflicts in land use for these areas later,” Murkowski said.
And Senate Bill 265 would allow the Department of Natural Resources to get started a year earlier on preparing a report to lawmakers on proposed oil and gas lease sales.
The measure would amend requirements for the state’s five-year oil and gas leasing program to allow adding potential competitive sales to the schedule each year instead of only every other year. The practical effect is that the bill would allow the department to present to legislators in January 2006 a report on potential Bristol Bay leases instead of waiting until 2007.
“These amendments will ultimately allow Natural Resources to hold sales in the frontier areas sooner,” the governor said in his statement on the legislation.
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