Alaska’s oil and gas industry gathered in Anchorage Wednesday, one day after the state’s third special session ended without a deal on the proposed gasline.
Jim Plaquet with the Alaska Oil and Gas Historical Society said he was disappointed lawmakers did not reach an agreement.
“We elect our legislators to go down there and be leaders. I thought we were going to get a deal,” Plaquet said.
Plaquet was among the attendees at the Alaska Oil and Gas Association’s two-day conference at the Dena’ina Center.
“It’s good to have a conference that everybody gets together. We have different speakers, we listen to them, we see what their investments are gonna be, what they’re gonna do, what they’re not gonna do, so we get kind of a snapshot of what’s gonna happen in the next year or two or five years from now,” Plaquet said.
Steve Wackowski, CEO of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, said this year marks the conference’s 10th anniversary and that organizers were expecting about 1,000 people.
“We’re super excited. This is our 10th anniversary conference here at the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. We’ve broke attendance, we are expecting about 1,000 people here,” Wackowski said.
The conference focuses on energy policy, including the future of North Slope natural gas.
“Alaska has this incredible resource on the North Slope in that natural gas, and so we want to work with the governor and other companies and the legislature to see that gasline get built because we think it’s critical to bring yet another resource to market for Alaskans,” Wackowski said.
The conference continues Thursday at the Dena’ina Center and is expected to include the U.S. secretary of energy.