The Alaska Support Industry Alliance's annual "Meet Alaska" conference, set this year in Anchorage for Jan. 20, is the must-go bash for all who are interested in the state's oil and gas industry.
It's the place to be for anyone wanting to rub shoulders with movers and shakers in the state's contractor and service company community, and to be briefed on upcoming projects and issues affecting the industry.
This year much of the attention of people attending Meet Alaska will be on updates on negotiations between the state and North Slope producers on a $20 billion natural gas pipeline project.
Gov. Frank Murkowski will launch the conference with a keynote address on oil and gas issues facing the state. The state's leading consultant on North Slope gas project negotiations, Dr. Pedro van Meurs, will highlight the program as well.
Other speakers include senior executives from top oil and gas companies doing business in Alaska. They include Steve Marshall, president of BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc.; Jim Bowles, president of ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc.; William Berry, executive vice president of production and exploration for ConocoPhillips; Rob Ryan, vice president of corporate affairs for Shell Exploration and Production; and Scott Sheffield, chief executive officer of Pioneer Natural Resources.
Also, Cheryl Knight, executive director for Petroleum Resources Council of Canada; David MacInnis of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association; and Kirk Pickerel, national president of Associated Builders and Contractors will give presentations.
The Alliance is a trade association with its members ranging from drilling companies to engineering, aviation, trucking and catering firms, and others that support companies engaged in resource extraction. The group lobbies in Juneau for legislation that helps the industry and fights against bills - like taxes - that hurt.
The Alliance isn't just a mouthpiece for the big oil and gas producers, though. Its members are companies either owned by Alaskans or with substantial operations based in the state. The group actively supports "buy Alaska" and "hire Alaska" campaigns, distributing bumper stickers to its members, but it also works to remind oil and gas producers why it's important to hire Alaska-based support firms.
Judy Brady, executive director of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, which is the petroleum industry's trade association, said the Alliance pays close attention to public policy issues because both the state and federal governments own most of the land in Alaska and regulate development through permitting.
Brady said the Alliance "is a consistent voice of reason on resource development issues. These people own or manage businesses which get hurt the worst when there is a failure in resource development.
"They are there to remind legislators that what they do affects Alaskan companies and Alaska workers, and not just out-of-state oil and mining companies," Brady said.
Companies benefit from membership
The trade group does more than lobby legislators, of course. Among other activities, it operates a group health insurance program, making affordable health care coverage available to its members.
Like other trade associations, the Alliance serves as a mechanism for its members to meet. It also offers the opportunity to hear speakers with important information about the industry.
The group has sponsored weekly early-morning meetings in Anchorage since the early 1980s and recently switched to a bi-weekly morning schedule supplemented with luncheon meetings.
Chapters in Kenai and Fairbanks also hold regular meetings, with speakers that are coordinated from Anchorage.
Also like other trade groups, the Alliance is a forum for its contractor and service company members to work with their major customers, the oil producers, and with government regulatory agencies.
In recent years, BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., for example, has worked through the Alliance to coordinate workshops on environmental and regulatory compliance.
An example of a successful initiative by the Alliance's members was in the recent study of overland tundra winter travel by the state Department of Natural Resources, the Oil and Gas Association's Brady said. Member firms of the group lent equipment and expertise to the DNR study of surface travel on winter tundra, the results of which allowed the state to modify its policy and allow travel earlier in the winter, she said. That allows exploration companies to mobilize earlier, and ultimately results in more wells being drilled.
Green Star
Through chapters in Kenai, Fairbanks, Prudhoe Bay and the home chapter in Anchorage, the Alliance also actively supports Green Star environmental programs among its members.
Green Star Inc. is a nonprofit corporation founded in Anchorage in 1990 that has now spread to the Lower 48, with Anchorage serving as headquarters for chapters in Alaska and other states.
The Alliance was a founding member of the Arctic Green Star chapter on the North Slope, started in 1995. The chapter was started to encourage businesses operating on the Slope to incorporate waste reduction, pollution prevention and energy conservation in daily operations.
One of the Alliance's early environmental projects was a large program to coordinate the "backhaul" of scrap metal from the North Slope for recycling. Working with North Slope oil producers, the group coordinated efforts to collect and load scrap on barges that had brought equipment and supplies north to the oil fields and were returning south empty.
In 1989, 4,000 tons of scrap metal were removed. In 1990, 10,000 tons were shipped south. In 1993, 8,500 tons were removed; and in 1994, 7,600 tons were moved.
The massive project reduced the amount of old and stored equipment around the Deadhorse area on the Slope, giving the industrial support center a cleaner image for visitors.
During the mid-1980s, Deadhorse had become a visual eyesore, something national environmental groups took advantage of in campaigns to oppose opening new areas of the Slope to development.
Meet Alaska timed with Legislature's start
The Alliance is probably best known, however, for its annual conferences in January bringing together Alaska's players in the petroleum industry, along with state and local governments. It's no coincidence that the conferences are timed just after the start of the annual legislative session.
This year's Meet Alaska 2006 conference, scheduled for Jan. 20, will be the 24th of the annual gatherings that the organization has sponsored.
Meet Alaska is one of the state's premier industry conferences and the only one which concentrates on the petroleum industry.
Since it was formed in 1979, the Alliance has become a major influence in the Capitol in Juneau. Its members have been engaged in almost every legislative battle involving the petroleum industry over the years, including several years dealing with bills affecting the Economic Limit Factor incentive in the state petroleum severance tax. The ELF is once again a hot-button issue this year.
The Alliance has also dealt with legislation imposing new environmental regulations.
Alliance members are also engaged with legislation of more direct concern to their members than to oil and gas producers. Issues like workers compensation and the implementation of legislation passed in 2005 will be a priority, for example.
Story by Tim Bradner, e-mail him at tim.bradner@alaskajournal.com.
