Jim Palmer eyes retirement

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

Jim Palmer will vacate the post of vice president, Alaska external affairs for BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. Nov. 1 to assume a newly created position as the company’s senior political advisor for Alaska. Pat Presley, currently BP general manager of state government relations on the West Coast, will take over BP’s Alaska external affairs organization. Palmer will remain in Anchorage until retirement from BP in February 2003.

“I’ve been thinking about retirement for some time; I want to spend more time with my family,” Palmer said in a statement. “But before leaving the company, I want to help Pat transition into one of best and most challenging jobs in all of BP, and be available to Steve Marshall as he begins his assignment as BP’s Alaska president.”

Before joining BP in 1984, Palmer was a staff member in the Alaska Legislature and the U.S. Senate. His Anchorage tenure was punctuated by a three-year BP posting in Washington, D.C., during the early 1990s.