Regulatory and fiscal stability herald bright future for investment in Alaska
There is a renaissance underway on the North Slope driven primarily by two huge projects – Santos’ and Eni’s Pikka development and ConocoPhillips’ Willow. Together, these two, new oil fields will increase production to levels not seen in in two decades.
Despite the challenges that come with operating in the Arctic – high costs, harsh weather, supply chain issues, legal hurdles and fluctuating oil prices –Alaska can expect $22 billion in planned oil and gas industry investment between 2025 and 2030, according to a petroleum economics study by Anchorage-based McKinley Research.
“By 2034, more than 60% of North Slope production will come from fields that, today, have yet to put a single drop into the Trans Alaska Pipeline System,” the study found.
We cannot control many of the challenges Arctic operations bring, but we can maintain fair and stable tax policies that attract the capital needed to keep our resource industries healthy so they can produce jobs and revenues for Alaskans.
Let’s keep Alaska competitive!
What’s at stake
$4B
State & Local Revenue
FY25
70,425
Alaskan Jobs Supported
Direct/Indirect
$0.5B
Grow the Permanent Fund
FY22 Dedicated Revenues to Corpus
$5.8B
Spending with Local Businesses
Annual
Source: McKinley Research for AOGA
Stable tax policy leads to resource renaissance on the North Slope
One of the most familiar faces in the Alaska oil patch, Ryan Lance, has been inducted into the Alaska Oil and Gas Historical Society Hall of Fame.
A petroleum engineer by training, Lance has played an important role in shaping the future of Alaska’s oil and gas industry throughout his career. He began his Alaska career with ARCO in 1984 and went on to lead ConocoPhillips as CEO, keeping Alaska’s North Slope a strategic priority at a time when many major oil companies were stepping away from exploration in the state.
A Great Falls, Montana native, Lance earned a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering in 1984. He ultimately spent four decades with ConocoPhillips, rising to become CEO. He got his start in the industry from the ground up, helping put himself through college by working on oil rigs in Wyoming.
Lance spent 15 years in Alaska, where he helped lead development of Alpine, the anchor for ConocoPhillips’ expansion westward on the North Slope. He invested so much of himself in Alpine that he and his wife have referred to it as his “third child.”
“Ryan’s commitment to Alaska reflects a long-term vision - not only focused on developing today’s resources, but on creating opportunities for the future,” his Hall of Fame citation says. “Under Ryan’s leadership, ConocoPhillips continued investing in exploration, infrastructure, and field development across the Western North Slope. Those investments helped advance new discoveries, support continued production, and build the foundation for future development.”
Congratulations, Ryan, on this well-deserved recognition and your next chapter!
PHOTO CREDIT: ConocoPhillips Alaska
Another 12,000 barrels a day are on the way for Alaska.
ConocoPhillips Alaska recently achieved first oil at Coyote 3SX, its newest development in the Kuparuk River Unit - and it did so ahead of schedule and under budget.
The approximately $800 million project shows how continued investment can breathe new life into Alaska’s legacy oil fields. Coyote uses existing Kuparuk infrastructure along with approximately 20 miles of new pipeline to efficiently bring new resources into production.
At peak, 19 development wells are expected to produce approximately 12,000 barrels of oil per day. The project also employed approximately 365 workers at peak construction this spring.
Coyote is another reminder that Alaska’s energy future isn’t limited to massive new developments. Continued investment in existing fields can add meaningful new production, support Alaska jobs, generate government revenue, and put more oil into TAPS.
Keeping Alaska competitive helps keep that investment – and those opportunities - here at home.
READ MORE: www.akbizmag.com/industry/oil-gas/conocophillips-welcomes-first-oil-from-coyote-project-in-kuparu...
PHOTO CREDIT: ConocoPhillips Alaska
Alaska’s energy future needs more than new projects. It needs Alaskans ready to work on them.
ConocoPhillips Alaska recently donated $400,000 to the University of Alaska to establish the Process Technology Support Fund, strengthening workforce training at UAF Community and Technical College and UAA’s Kenai Peninsula College.
The investment will help modernize equipment and simulation technology, expand outreach to high school students and create more pathways into the skilled careers that keep Alaska’s oil fields, pipelines and other critical industries operating safely.
And those pathways can lead to great careers.
According to Alaska Business, 88% of Kenai Peninsula College process technology graduates find employment in their field within one year, with average first-year earnings exceeding $84,000 and average wages reaching approximately $130,000 within five years.
As billions of dollars are invested in projects like Pikka and Willow, Alaska needs a skilled workforce ready to turn that investment into long-term opportunity.
Keeping Alaska competitive means developing our resources — and investing in the Alaskans who make responsible development possible.
PHOTO CREDIT: ConocoPhillips Alaska
Letter from the co-chairs
Fair and Competitive oil taxes are working
There is a resurgence in oil production and jobs in Alaska that is directly related to our current oil tax policy. SB 21, a fair and competitive tax policy, replaced the antiquated ACES tax structure that drove down petroleum investment for more than a decade. Thanks to SB 21, Alaskans have the greatest opportunity of our generation on the North Slope today.
Some present and former legislators argue that SB 21 was a mistake, but the facts speak for themselves.
The Willow and Pikka projects, years in the making, are in active development, with Pikka now expecting first production any day now. These and other robust investments in Alaska’s future would not have occurred under the previous punitive tax regime. Between the Willow and Pikka projects alone, the oil and gas industry is spending over $10 billion in Alaska, with each project generating thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of operating jobs.
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