Max Easley, BP, Alaska Consolidated Team

BP Alaska’s Max Easley, senior vice president and business unit leader of the Alaska Consolidated Team, offered official testimony April 14 at a day-long public hearing in Anchorage on the federal government’s proposed five-year offshore leasing program. The program would include federal waters off the east and west coasts, off Alaska, and in the Gulf of Mexico.

The session was the third of four regional meetings hosted by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to help build a comprehensive energy strategy for the US Outer Continental Shelf. Other meetings have been held in Atlantic City, N.J., and New Orleans. The final hearing will be in San Francisco.

At stake in Alaska are rights to drill offshore energy basins that the US Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) says could contain 27 billion barrels of oil and 132 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. It is a vast resource that could fuel Alaska’s economy for years, and make a major contribution to the nation’s energy supply.

The offshore basins lie in lower Cook Inlet, the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas off Alaska’s northern and northwestern coasts, and the Bristol Bay region, off the state’s western coast.

Easley noted that as part of his BP management portfolio, he is responsible for offshore facilities including Northstar, the only facility on the North Slope producing from the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). He remarked that the country is going to need a diverse portfolio of energy sources, including oil and gas, renewable alternatives, as well as the efficient use of all energy.

“These are challenging times,” he said. “Our nation’s ability to maintain its leadership position in the world will depend on energy supplies from all sources. BP supports the [Obama] administration’s view the energy security is inseparable from national security.”

“We must produce more energy of all kinds, and import less,” he said.

Easley mentioned that BP is the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the United States and also the largest investor in energy of all sorts — from oil and gas to biofuels, wind, and solar.

“BP is committed to alternatives, but the fact is that it will be many years before they can make a significant contribution to the US energy mix,” he said.

“It is our strong belief that the greatest potential source for new domestic energy is the oil and natural gas that lies off our shores — on the Outer Continental Shelf.”

Easley noted that BP has been in Alaska for 50 years, and has proven that offshore areas can be leased, explored and developed to the highest environmental and operational standards in the world, even in sensitive environments; and in a way that respects and benefits local communities.

“BP’s Endicott field was the first continuously producing offshore field in the Arctic when it was brought into service in 1987,” Easley said. “In 2001, BP began production at Northstar. It is the first stand-alone, Arctic offshore oil production island, and is the only Arctic field producing from the federal OCS.”

He then cited BP’s Liberty project, the first offshore project fully located in federal waters. He said Liberty will set standards in Arctic oilfield development and industry technology.

“We will drill ultra-long-reach wells from Endicott to reach the reservoir — six to eight miles away — using state-of-the-art technology,” he said.

He added that developments like Liberty, Northstar, and Endicott demonstrate that technology is the key to unlocking the OCS resource potential, and that companies can have safe operations with the least possible footprint.

“They show that companies, government and local communities can build mutual understanding and work together,” he concluded. “We have common goals — energy diversity, energy security. This is the time to unlock the enormous energy potential of the OCS.”

The Department of the Interior maintains a webpage on the Outer Continental Shelf program, containing videos, presentations and instructions on submitting written testimony. The public-comment period for the leasing program continues until September 21, 2009.