Alaska funds 25 more oil, gas positions

Petroleum News

A proponent of increased oil and gas investment in Alaska, Gov. Frank Murkowski has funded 25 new state oil and gas positions in his Fiscal Year 2005 budget, including 16 new positions for the state’s Division of Oil and Gas.

“The administration is being very supportive and very consistent with their desire to grow oil and gas revenues,” division Director Mark Myers told Petroleum News June 22. He said the funding is “a recognition that the upcoming Bristol Bay lease sale and commercial negotiations with the gas pipeline are very important to state resource development” and state revenues.The funding, announced July 20, reflects the governor’s “desire to do resource development the right way— not to shortcut the process. That takes work force,” Myers said. The 16 new positions bring the division’s total to 79 positions, representing a 25 percent increase in the agency’s workforce from FY2004, which ended June 30. The new employees will be used to administer the agency’s existing workload, Myers said. The division is, among other things, responsible for leasing state lands for oil and gas exploration and development; marketing Alaska’s oil and gas potential worldwide; doing a risk analysis of state investment in the North Slope gasline project; and monitoring and auditing lease and unit agreement operations, including rental and royalty payments.