ALASKA’S GOVERNOR LOOKS LITIGIOUS
Must Read Alaska has asked experts in the energy sector to provide insights on Gov. Bill Walker’s pre-litigation moves against BP, the operator of Prudhoe Bay. Here’s a list of observations gathered in the past 24 hours, which will be updated as they arrive:
- This is headed to court. Court will be where everyone loses.
- The remedy for failing to provide information under the plan of development is not to take leases back.
- The governor’s move does not instill confidence that Alaska is a good investment environment.
- Walker does not look like a stable or reasonable partner.
- Walker’s move will have a very real chilling effect on investment in the state.
- The Prudhoe Bay unit operators may have an obligation to produce – but do not have an obligation to build the pipeline needed to get that production to market.
- The four-decade-old problem of how to get the gas to market remains unsolved.
- AK LNG should already have the marketing data Walker wants.
- The highest value of North Slope gas remains its ability to be reinjected into the fields to enhance oil recovery.
Walker’s staff provided KTUU’s Austin Baird with terse written answers to a series of questions he asked:
