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‘Good news’ wanted in 2003
Petroleum News Alaska Staff
During the last two months, Petroleum News Alaska publisher Kay Cashman informally interviewed 17 key participants in, or observers of, Alaska’s oil and gas industry.
The results of the main part of the survey, as well as some details about the type of people surveyed, can be found in the top story on this page.
Below are responses from 14 of the 17 individuals interviewed. They were asked what they thought were the most important things the state and federal governments could do in 2003 to ensure the health and growth of Alaska’s oil and gas industry.
Their answers were as follows:
Tied for No. 1 • Lower TAPS tariff by $1.50 per barrel
• Reduce permitting time, complexity Tied for No. 2 • Open ANWR’s coastal plain to drilling
• Gain affordable access to North Slope infrastructure Other actions needed • Increase window of time for tundra and ice access
• Repeal, change state law that funds public interest lawsuits
• Build year-round, gravel access roads on North Slope
• Offer incentives to explore offshore, including Chukchi Sea
• Reduce unnecessary regulation
• Reduce restrictions in northeast corner of NPR-A
• Establish stable state fiscal regime
• Do away with the ACMP program
All of the top four items were mentioned by 10 of the 14 individuals as the most important things for government to do. Three individuals mentioned state or federal incentives to build a gas pipeline from the North Slope to Lower 48 markets. Four mentioned the importance of the state going forward with a royalty-in-kind gas sale. Two others were opposed to such a sale; both worked for one of the three major North Slope gas producers.
Some of those who addressed the trans-Alaska oil pipeline tariff were looking for Gov. Frank Murkowski to come out in support of a lower tariff in preparation for the negotiations with the pipeline owners beginning in 2006 that will result in a new agreement to go into effect in 2011; others were hopeful that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would concur with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska’s December ruling on lowering the tariff. (See the story titled “RCA: Intrastate oil pipeline tariff too high” in the Dec. 8 edition of PNA and the follow-up article in the Jan. 5 edition titled “Ruling could lower TAPS tariff by $1.50 per barrel, boost exploration.”)
Five of the items under “other actions needed” were mentioned by everyone surveyed; six by 12 people. A lower pipeline tariff, reduced permitting time, stopping state funding of public interest lawsuits and affordable access to North Slope infrastructure were considered by most to be “incentives” for investment. No one mentioned any other types of incentives.
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