Call him the ambassador of energy.
Alaska Natural Resources Commissioner Dan Sullivan has become Gov. Sean Parnell's point man on the state's effort to ramp up oil and gas development in Alaska and off the Arctic coast. These days, you're as apt to find Sullivan at an oil conference in Houston or a congressman's office in Washington, D.C., than his own official digs at the Atwood Building in downtown Anchorage.
On Thursday, Sullivan was in the nation's capital, wrapping up a week of what he described as non-stop meetings with key White House officials and congressional leaders to get them to buy into the notion that scratching each other's backs is good for the nation as well as the state.
"What we're trying to do in Alaska has huge implications for the country," Sullivan said in an interview after a press conference sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and attended by about a dozen national media outlets. Parnell was in Juneau and outlined his five-part strategy to boost Alaska oil development to the reporters via teleconference.
But it was Sullivan, who a couple of hours later, found himself in a taxicab on the other side of the country, scrambling to find a flight back to Alaska after his was cancelled at the last minute.
In March, at a rally aimed at garnering support for a bill that would have cut taxes on North Slope producers, Parnell announced a goal of boosting trans-Alaska pipeline throughput to 1 million barrels a day in the next 10 years. Parnell believes reducing oil taxes will result in more investment by the producers, which will lead to more oil exploration and production, strengthening jobs and the economy over the long term.
Alaska's federal surge
That goal has since grown into a five-part strategy that includes making Alaska more competitive, in part through tax changes, streamlining the state's permitting process and coming up with new incentives to entice North Slope development.
Parnell and Sullivan on Thursday were engaged in carrying out parts four and five -- building partnerships with federal officials and elected leaders who can help the state, and promoting the state's resources to industry and others, including the national media.
Sullivan arrived in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, armed with a power point presentation that includes Alaska's story when it comes to resource development, including rare earth metals, which Parnell has characterized as another jewel in the state's resource treasure chest.
"Every day I've been talking about 10 hours straight," Sullivan said.
The talking points include not only why Alaska is a critical part of America's energy future, he said, but also the state's environmental record and technological innovations in working in the Arctic.
Sullivan said that it's become clear to him many national policy makers and even industry executives don't really realize the extent of Alaska's possibilities. And, he said, they certainly don't know that oil companies working on the North Slope have developed technology -- like ice roads, ice pads and directional drilling -- to the extent that the footprint left by development has become considerably smaller.
"I hit on that really hard," he said. "The key point here is that (Parnell's plan) is a good plan, and the state is putting a ton of skin in the game if you look at incentives and credits."
Parnell told reporters on Thursday that he has been writing to other governors as well as President Barack Obama to raise awareness of Alaska's potential to help the country out of an energy crisis.
"One of the most prolific and productive sources of energy is right beneath us," he said.
But, he said, much of the resource is on federal land. "We need America's help to explore for and produce this oil."
Although any new production from Alaska would take at least 10 years to bring on line, Sullivan said tapping Alaska's oil and gas reserves would help with everything from the national debt and budget deficit to reducing prices for consumers.
"We need to tap America's real strategic petroleum reserve, and that is Alaska," he told reporters.
Sullivan said in an interview that the policy makers he's met with understand how critical the pipeline is for the nation's energy security. He said he's reminded White House officials that boosting Alaska oil production will help achieve Obama's goal of reducing dependency on foreign supplies in the next decade.
"It's kind of a hard case to refute," he said. "I think it's a pretty darn good policy direction."
Still, he said, it's the kind of strategy that "you're only going to see if it works in a couple of years."
Sullivan hoped to make it home by the weekend. But he won't be resting for long. The state plans to make an aggressive push to drum up bidders for a lease sale coming up in October covering acreage on the North Slope, the North Slope foothills, and the Beaufort Sea.
The 14.7 million acre sale -- roughly the size of Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut combined -- is one of the state's largest. The state announced that sale several weeks ago but Parnell and Sullivan pitched it anew to the national press corps on Thursday. Stories that then circulated on the web for the next several hours billed it as a new action by the state.
Sullivan said he'll be on the road again to pitch that one some more, but this time directly to companies he hopes will submit bids. The resources commissioner said he's particularly interested in meeting with their geologists and scientists to promote new and potentially lucrative plays on the North Slope, including shale oil.
Still, he said, "predicting who will show up in October is risky business."
Contact Patti Epler at patti(at)alaskadispatch.com