8-31-16 Big Prudhoe Bay Decision Tomorrow: Free Enterprise or Socialized Enterprise?

ExxonMobil Withdraws from Proposed LNG Facility in Alaska, U.S. supermajor, ExxonMobil Corporation XOM, has decided against … stake through the state-ownedAlaska Gasline Development Corp (“AGDC”). Yahoo Finance

Exxon Backs Out of LNG Project in Alaska, The Founders Daily. The energy corporation decided not to invest in the next stage of the … stake through Alaska Gasline Development Corp—a state-owned company.

Oil discoveries at 70-year low signal supply shortfall ahead. Explorers in 2015 discovered only about a tenth as much oil as they have annually on average since 1960.

Tomorrow Is A Historical Day For Prudhoe Bay

(See the Alaska Support Industry Alliance’s Ak-Headlamp Review Below)

Note: We Ask Ourselves, “Does Alaska’s Socialist-leaning Governor Move Toward “Nationalizing” A Major Oil & Gas Asset Tomorrow?” -dh

Bill Walker, Governor of Alaska. NGP file photo by Dave Harbour.

Tomorrow is the day. It’s the day that the field operator at Prudhoe Bay provides confidential, proprietary information related to the production, marketing and sales plan for gas to the Department of Natural Resources or…. What? The field operator was given a deadline of September 1 to provide information that they had previously declined to provide. No matter what the field operator’s response is to the request for information, the State of Alaska will either approve or deny the Prudhoe Bay Plan of Development (POD) for natural gas that was submitted originally in March – or follow through on their threat to stop activity at Prudhoe by November 1.

Headlamp asks Alaskans to pay attention to this important deadline.

We hope policy makers approve BP’s POD. This is the only course of action that will prevent prolonged lawsuits, and does not jeopardize thousands of Alaskan jobs and billions of dollars in state revenue.

Here is what others are saying about the future of Prudhoe Bay:

“It’s unclear what will come of the state threatening the companies’ leases if they refuse to give in. But Prudhoe Bay was responsible for nearly half of the state’s oil production last year.” KTOO, Rashah McChesney, August 16, 2016. To read more click here.

“So here we find ourselves with the state’s best hope for future petroleum revenue drenched in uncertainty and Walker’s legal team preparing to litigate with the producers over unreasonable demands for confidential information tied to a unit that supplies half of Alaska’s unrestricted general funds and is still the largest field in North America.” AJOC, Andrew Jensen, July 27, 2016. To read more click here.

“If Alaska governor Bill Walker’s predecessor governors wished to demand competitive producer information, they would have put that demand in the original Prudhoe Bay Lease Sale — and future lease sale — requirements. Adding requirements — especially those that violate federal laws — after a lease sale, after investors pay their bonus bids, after exploration and development and construction of transportation facilities and after nearly 50 years of precedent is tantamount to expropriation.”Northern Gas Pipelines, Dave Harbour, August, 3, 2016. To read more click here.

“At worst the dispute would become a testy court fight, clouding the legal status of 26 trillion cubic feet of gas in Prudhoe and effectively ending any hopes for a gas pipeline for years. A better outcome, and what may be the governor’s intention, is to goad North Slope producers into advancing the Alaska LNG Project…The state taking possession of “gas” leases is unworkable. The only solution would be the state taking possession of the entire field, to include the oil as well as gas.” AJOC, Tim Bradner, July 10, 2016. To read more click here.

About the Author: wpnorthern

Dave Harbour, publisher of Northern Gas Pipelines, is a former Chairman of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, a Commissioner Emeritus of NARUC, NARUC's Official Representative to IOGCC and Vice Chairman of NARUC's Gas Committee. He served as Gas Committee Chairman of the Western Conference of Public Service Commissioners. He also served as commissioner of the Anchorage Bicentennial Commission and the Anchorage Heritage Land Bank Commission. He earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree: English, at Colorado State University, a Master of Science Degree: Communications-Journalism at Murray State University and graduated from Utility Regulatory School for Commissioners at Michigan State University. He served as a Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs at Alaska Pacific University, taught bank marketing classes at the University of Alaska and was an English teacher at Los Alamos High School. Harbour served in ranks of Private - Captain during a 4-year assignment with the Army in Korea, Idaho, Georgia and Fort Meade and received the Meritorious Service Medal among other commendations. Harbour is also a past Chairman of the Alaska Council on Economic Education, the Alaska Oil & Gas Association Government Affairs Committee, the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, the Export Council of Alaska and the Department of Commerce's District Export Council. He is a past President of the Alaska Press Club, American Bald Eagle Foundation, Consumer Energy Alliance-Alaska and Common Sense for Alaska. Harbour was instrumental in founding the American Bald Eagle Research Institute (UAS), the Alaska Support Industry Alliance, the Downtown Anchorage Business Partnership, and Arctic Power. He also served as CEO of several small Alaska organizations, including the Anchorage Parking Authority and Action Security, Inc. Harbour is also Chairman Emeritus of the Alaska Oil & Gas Congress. Harbour's wife, Nancy, is a professional, performing arts administrator and his three boys, Todd, Benjamin and William work in the fields of environmental management, energy marketing and medicine.