00                    SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 6                                                                   
01 Urging the governor to direct the division of oil and gas, Department of Natural                                        
02 Resources, to undertake a comprehensive review of the subject of Cook Inlet oil and gas                                 
03 platform abandonment for the purpose of developing new oil and gas platform                                             
04 abandonment regulations and their adoption and implementation.                                                          
05 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
06       WHEREAS recent testimony to legislative committees noted that four of the 16                                    
07 offshore oil platforms in Cook Inlet are now "lighthoused," holding up warning lights and                               
08 nothing else; and                                                                                                       
09       WHEREAS many of the Cook Inlet platforms in place date from the 1960s; and                                      
10       WHEREAS past oil production in Cook Inlet peaked at 226,000 barrels a day in 1970                               
11 but last year was 24,000 barrels a day, while past gas production peaked at 312 billion cubic                           
12 feet a year in 1990 and is now about 200 billion cubic feet; and                                                        
13       WHEREAS, despite declining oil and gas production, there is some reason to believe                              
14 that these platforms could be used for redevelopment and exploration to help reverse the trend                          
15 in that production; and                                                                                                 
01       WHEREAS state regulators have encouraged use of these platforms to drill for new                                
02 deeper wells; and                                                                                                       
03       WHEREAS drilling into new geological zones 5,000 feet deeper than existing wells                                
04 might tap into larger fields of oil than have been hit so far; and                                                      
05       WHEREAS, by way of example, XTO Energy has redeveloped wells on two former                                      
06 Shell platforms to tap into new oil, an illustration of the kind of work by smaller companies                           
07 that should be encouraged and extended in Cook Inlet; and                                                             
08       WHEREAS the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission recognized some time                                     
09 ago the need for a cooperative and joint effort in updating and revising its existing regulations                       
10 to address the concerns of operating in this state's changing business and environmental                                
11 climate; among other topics deemed worthy of consideration was modification of the existing                             
12 Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission regulations affecting platform abandonment;                                  
13 and                                                                                                                     
14       WHEREAS, in 1996, the commission proposed implementation of revised platform                                    
15 abandonment regulations using the public work product and sought comment from the                                       
16 Department of Natural Resources; and                                                                                    
17       WHEREAS, following the commission's initiative, discussion ensued as to primacy                               
18 for regulation adoption, prompting a decision of the attorney general indicating that the                               
19 department, not the commission, had the obligation to take the lead in developing new oil and                           
20 gas platform abandonment regulations and their adoption and implementation;                                             
21       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature, consistent with the advice of                                 
22 the attorney general, urges the governor to direct the division of oil and gas, Department of                           
23 Natural Resources, to undertake a comprehensive review of the subject of Cook Inlet oil and                             
24 gas platform abandonment using the 1996 proposals of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation                                
25 Commission as the starting point for its deliberations.