Chantal Walsh named O&G director

Chantal Walsh has been named director of the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas effective Nov. 28.

Walsh has 30 years of private-sector experience in Alaska’s petroleum industry on matters including strategic planning, commercial analysis, litigation, well work operations, production optimization, completions, and drilling design and coordination, the Department of Natural Resources said in a Nov. 10 press release.

She has worked both Cook Inlet and the North Slope.

“DNR will benefit greatly from Chantal’s technical expertise and 30 years of industry experience in Alaska’s oil and gas sector,” DNR Commissioner Andy Mack said in announcing the appointment. “Throughout her career, she has worked on many issues similar to those that the Division of Oil and Gas routinely confronts. We are confident she will provide effective leadership to the division and we are excited to have her on the DNR team,” Mack said.

Walsh is leaving her position as consulting engineer at Petrotechnical Resources of Alaska, a consulting firm she cofounded in 1997. As a PRA principal consultant she has worked on major oil and gas projects through Alaska. Her oil and gas career began in 1985 at Standard Alaska Production Co. working on Prudhoe Bay projects. She continued to work on Prudhoe Bay projects with BP and then ARCO Alaska, where she held a variety of positions in commercial analysis, reservoir management, litigation and field operations.

“As a lifelong Alaskan and oil industry career professional, I look forward to joining the Division of Oil and Gas and working with DNR, industry, and other state leaders to effectively and cooperatively manage our world-class oil and gas resources,” Walsh said.

Walsh has a Bachelor of Science degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and is a licensed professional engineer in Alaska. She is vice chair of the University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Engineering and Mines’ Advisory and Development Council.

Walsh replaces Corri Feige, who resigned in September, effective Oct. 3. Feige referred to other opportunities in a statement provided by the DNR commissioner’s office, noting the long compute from her home near Chickaloon and a desire to spend more time with her daughter in the last year before her daughter moves away to college.

Feige, a geophysicist and engineer with more than 20 years of management-level experience in the energy industry, became division director April 30, 2015.

Jim Beckham, the division’s deputy director, has been acting director in the interim.

- KRISTEN NELSON