Seven-member stranded gas negotiation team includes Rutherford, van Meurs

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News editor-in-chief

Steve Porter, Deputy Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Revenue, told a Sept. 10 Alaska Senate Resources hearing that the Murkowski administration expects an application from the North Slope oil companies under the state�s Stranded Gas Development Act, which was amended by the Legislature earlier this year.

Under the act, Porter said, applicants can negotiate a contract with the state for revenues from natural gas production, providing certainty both to the applicant and to the state.

The state has not yet received an application, he said, because the focus of both the Murkowski administration and the North Slope companies is now on federal enabling legislation, and on supporting provisions favored by both.

�We have been preparing internally for negotiating the contract under the act,� Porter said.

Porter said he and Roger Marks, a petroleum economist, are Revenue�s representatives on the negotiating team. Division of Oil and Gas members are Marty Rutherford, former deputy commissioner of the Department of Revenue, now a consultant, and Antony Scott, a commercial analyst. The Department of Law is represented by two assistant attorney generals, Martin Schultz and David Marquez. Pedro van Meurs, an international energy economist who has advised Alaska on the commercialization of North Slope natural gas, is also on the state�s negotiating team.

Porter said the act is specific on the contents of the application, and the application, once submitted, will be a public document and will be provided to the Legislature and to the public. Once a contract has been negotiated, it will go to the Legislature for approval and Porter said the administration hopes to be able to provide a negotiated contract during the upcoming session.

Sen. Scott Ogan, R-Palmer, chairman of Senate Resources, told Porter that he doesn�t want to see the contract arrive in the Legislature for approval in the last two weeks of the session. �I don�t want to get this thing dumped in our punchbowl two weeks before the end of session when we�re all burned out, and we�re tired and we don�t have time� and energy to consider it carefully, he said. Porter said the administration�s goal is to provide the contract to the Legislature �in time to reasonably evaluate it because it�s very, very important.�