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Oil Patch Insider: Wiggin getting back to business; TransCanada becomes TC Energy
Kay Cashman Petroleum News
Former Alaska Department of Natural Resources Deputy Commissioner Mark Wiggin is ready to “get back to business.”
After leaving office when the Dunleavy administration took over in early December, Wiggin and his family headed home to New Orleans and spent the holidays there and in Seattle.
He’s back in Anchorage, has slapped on the label “consultant,” and is looking forward to getting involved in the oil and gas industry again.
“I want to take some of what I’ve learned in the commissioner’s office and working for industry for 36 years and use it wherever I am most needed - as a consultant, company employee or getting involved in public policy again,” Wiggin told Petroleum News Jan. 9.
His most recent position with private industry was engineering and development manager for independent Brooks Range Petroleum, a job he held from 2012 to third quarter 2016 when he was joined DNR as deputy commissioner.
Wiggin’s industry experience includes about 12 years with ConocoPhillips/ARCO, beginning his career in 1980 in Houston, Texas, and moving to Alaska with ARCO in 1983.
He held a number of engineering positions with ARCO, and later worked for various consultancy and engineering firms on major Alaska oil and gas projects. From 2005 to 2012 he worked for ASRC Energy Services on the Alaska gas pipeline project and on the Nikaitchuq oil field. Wiggin was a lead startup engineer for the Alpine and Milne Point oil fields, DNR said at the time of his appointment in 2016.
Beckham ‘keeps the trains running’ As for not being retained as deputy commissioner Wiggin brushed aside the question, “Did you want to stay?,” saying “it’s not new. It’s something to be expected when a new governor takes office.”
He said he has no hard feelings.
Just the opposite. “It was an honor to serve. DNR has some very talented people. I was happy to see Corri Feige appointed DNR commissioner. And it was my urging that helped convince Chantal Walsh to leave private industry and take a job as director of the Division of Oil and Gas just a couple of months after I became deputy commissioner. I was pleased to see she was kept in that position.”
As for deputy director of the division, Jim Beckham, who was also retained, Wiggin said, “He and Chantal make a great team. Jim keeps the trains running.”
Wiggin credits tough questions put to him about public policy by former DNR Commissioner John Shively during a job interview with his decision to go back to school and get a master’s degree in public policy from Duke University. (Shively was commissioner for six years from 1994 to 2000.)
Wiggin also has a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Louisiana State University.
- KAY CASHMAN
TransCanada to become TC Energy TransCanada Corp., a company with a history in Alaska’s efforts to monetize its North Slope natural gas reserves, said Jan. 9 that it has changed its name to TC Energy to “better reflect the scope” of its operations as a North American energy infrastructure firm.
The name change has to be approved at TransCanada’s next annual and special meeting of shareholders.
“We believe the name TC Energy clearly articulates our complete business - pipelines, power generation and energy storage operations - and reflects our continued continental growth into an enterprise with critical assets and employees in Canada, the United States and Mexico,” Russ Girling, TransCanada’s president and CEO, said in a press release.
- KAY CASHMAN
Murkowski selected as energy chair On Jan. 8, the Republican members of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee chose Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, to serve as the panel’s chairman for the 116th Congress.
Murkowski has been chairman of the committee since the beginning of the 114th Congress
“Our committee has a great history of accomplishment, and I will do everything I can to keep that tradition going in this new Congress,” Murkowski said. “I’m grateful to my colleagues for this continued honor and have my sights set on another productive Congress.”
Serving with Murkowski on the committee for the next two years are the following Republican senators: John Barrasso, Wyoming; Jim Risch, Idaho; Mike Lee, Utah; Steve Daines, Montana; Bill Cassidy, Louisiana; Cory Gardner, Colorado; Cindy Hyde-Smith, Mississippi; Martha McSally, Arizona; Lamar Alexander, Tennessee; and John Hoeven, North Dakota.
- KAY CASHMAN
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