FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — Alaska’s current healthy environment for investment is a reason to vote against repeal of an oil tax measure passed in 2013, an ExxonMobil official told the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday.
Production manager Karen Hagedorn, in a speech noting progress on the Point Thomson field, said the previous tax structure, which was changed by the Alaska Legislature in 2013, was overcomplicated and burdensome at higher oil prices.
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“I just want to say what is important about oil tax reform from our perspective,” Hagedorn said. “If I could leave you with three words: competitive, predictable and durable. That’s the kind of fiscal structure you have to have to enable a healthy industry and healthy environment.”
The tax structure now in place was pushed by Gov. Sean Parnell. Opponents say the measure gives away too much potential state revenue for no promise of additional oil production.
Opponents successfully collected enough signatures to place a repeal on the August ballot. The industry is spending millions to reject the repeal.
Hagedorn said fieldwork to develop Point Thompson is going well and has created work opportunities for Fairbanks oil field workers. Over the winter, the project created 729 positions on the North Slope and 1,200 statewide. Hagedorn said 85 percent of the jobs were filled by Alaskans and most companies working on the project were based in Alaska, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (http://bit.ly/1maGd95 ) reported.
Primarily a natural gas field, Point Thomson is 60 miles east of Prudhoe Bay and 22 miles east of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. It’s estimated to contain 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, about 300 million barrels of gas condensate liquids, and traditional crude oil. It’s also considered critical to development of a gas pipeline.
Hagedorn noted the recent completion of a pipeline tying Point Thomson to the greater pipeline network on the North Slope.
“This was a big milestone for us, getting in that export pipeline. It’s 22 miles, 12-inch pipeline and ties into Badami pipeline,” she said. “Again, as we keep seeing on the North Slope, when there’s a healthy environment up there for investment, infrastructure builds on infrastructure. … As long as we have a healthy oil industry there’s always something that builds on.”
Much work at Point Thomson field was outlined in a settlement with the state a year before the oil tax plan was passed by the Legislature. The state moved to terminate leases at Point Thomson after concluding that ExxonMobil and other companies were not taking adequate steps to develop them.
Hagedorn called Point Thomson a “strategic next step” and hopes to get it into production in 2016.
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Information from: Fairbanks (Alaska) Daily News-Miner, http://www.newsminer.com
