Foerster appointed to chair AOGCC

Alaska regulatory panel has plenty of work ahead on well control inquiry, shale oil, the Repsol incident and an office expansion

Wesley Loy

For Petroleum News

Since 2005, Cathy Foerster has been a vocal presence on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, holding the engineering seat on the three-member panel.

Now she’s taking on the added title of commission chair.

Gov. Sean Parnell appointed Foerster to a four-year term as chair, effective March 1.

She takes over the chairmanship from Dan Seamount, the commission’s geologist member.

The other member, John Norman, is a lawyer who holds the commission’s “public member” seat. He, too, is a former AOGCC chair.

Now, it’s Foerster’s turn. And it’s no big deal, she told Petroleum News.

“We’re all peers. We’re all equals,” she said. “The only thing that’s going to change is who runs the meetings and who signs the letters.”

What the commission does

According to its website, the commission acts to prevent waste of resources, protect correlative rights, improve ultimate recovery and protect underground fresh water. It regulates underground injection for enhanced oil recovery and disposal of oil field waste. And the commission serves as an adjudicatory forum for resolving certain oil and gas disputes between owners, including the state.

Former Gov. Frank Murkowski appointed Foerster to the commission in 2005. She previously compiled nearly 30 years of industry experience, holding a variety of engineering and supervisory positions first for Exxon in Texas, then for ARCO, BP and finally Petrotechnical Resources of Alaska, or PRA, an Anchorage-based consulting firm.

Amid her various engineering gigs, Foerster also worked for a couple of years as ARCO’s lobbyist in Juneau, and as director of the BP Energy Center in Anchorage.

Foerster grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas, and in 1977 earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Texas.

A full plate

• The commission needs to finalize a decision regarding offshore and ultra-extended reach wells drilled in areas of the state under agency jurisdiction.

Commissioners sought comments and held hearings on Sept. 15-16, 2011, concerning whether AOGCC regulations are adequate for control of such wells. The proceedings were in reaction to the Deepwater Horizon blowout in April 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico.

The AOGCC closed its docket on the inquiry on Jan. 15.

• The commission will need to investigate possible regulation changes on hydraulic fracturing should shale oil exploration and development take off in Alaska, Foerster said.

The U.S. Geological Survey recently published an assessment of potential North Slope shale oil and gas resources, and two companies — Great Bear Petroleum and Royale Energy — have leased extensive North Slope acreage with shale oil in mind.

Fully exploiting shale oil plays could require thousands of well bores coupled with hydraulic fracturing. Shale oil and gas development has exploded in the Lower 48 states.

• The commission is devoting a lot of attention to a Feb. 15 incident in which the Qugruk No. 2 exploratory well being drilled on the North Slope for Repsol, a major Spanish oil company, went out of control.

Repsol drilling contractor Nabors penetrated a shallow gas pocket at a depth of 2,523 feet, resulting in a “kick” that drove drilling mud out of the well and onto the work pad and tundra.

The AOGCC will review the incident to determine, among other things, if fines are warranted or regulations need tightening, Foerster said.

On the Repsol well, the company and regulators alike failed to identify beforehand the presence of shallow gas, she said.

• Finally, agency staffers are busy expanding into an adjacent suite in the AOGCC’s downtown office building.

And the commission is trying, with difficulty, to fill vacancies for three engineers and one inspector. The U.S. oil and gas industry is hot, and all the qualified applicants seem to be favoring company over government jobs, Foerster said.