00                        SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 402                                                                       
01 Relating to expressing support for the Administration's efforts to bring Point Thomson                                  
02 unit into production.                                                                                                   
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE:                                                                                           
04       WHEREAS, starting in 1965, the State of Alaska leased land in the Point Thomson                                 
05 area to oil companies in the expectation that this land would be explored and developed in a                            
06 timely manner; and                                                                                                      
07       WHEREAS the Point Thomson Unit was formed in 1977, based on the promise that                                    
08 the leaseholders would produce hydrocarbons from the unit within the next five years or                                 
09 dissolve the unit; and                                                                                                  
10       WHEREAS, by 1982, the working interest owners discovered large hydrocarbon                                      
11 deposits within the unit area; and                                                                                      
12       WHEREAS, more than 30 years after the unit was formed, no production has ever                                   
13 taken place on any of the leases in this unit; and                                                                      
14       WHEREAS, in 2006, the Murkowski Administration terminated the Point Thomson                                     
15 Unit to ensure that the valuable oil and gas resources in this area would be brought into                               
16 production; and                                                                                                         

01       WHEREAS these efforts have been continued by the current Administration, and the                              
02 courts have supported the state's right to terminate the unit; and                                                      
03       WHEREAS the Department of Natural Resources rejected the Twenty-third Plan of                                 
04 Development that the working interest owners submitted as a remedy for the failure to submit                            
05 an acceptable Twenty-second Plan of Development; and                                                                    
06       WHEREAS the Twenty-third Plan of Development does not contain assurances that                                   
07 production will occur or proposals to compensate Alaskans for lost revenue from delayed                                 
08 production; and                                                                                                         
09       WHEREAS, for more than 43 years, ExxonMobil Corporation has broken its                                    
10 promises to develop Point Thomson; and                                                                                  
11       WHEREAS ExxonMobil Corporation's repeated efforts to delay production rather                                    
12 than to bring Alaska's resources to market are unacceptable; and                                                        
13       WHEREAS it is time for Point Thomson to be brought into production;                                             
14       BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate supports timely development of Alaska's oil and                                  
15 gas resources and opposes any efforts to warehouse those resources; and be it                                           
16       FURTHER RESOLVED that the Senate supports the Administration's efforts to                                       
17 terminate the unit and revoke the underlying leases if necessary to ensure that Alaska's oil and                        
18 gas resources are finally brought to market for the benefit of all Alaskans.