Now that Hilcorp has taken BP’s place in Alaska, the Texas-based company is absorbing ExxonMobil’s operations at the Point Thomson natural gas field. ExxonMobil will continue to own 62 percent of the North Slope field, which started producing gas liquids in 2016, but Hilcorp will become the operator, pending regulatory approval in early 2022. Hilcorp owns 37 percent of Point Thomson as part of the $5.6 billion purchase of BP’s Alaska assets in 2020. An ExxonMobil spokesman says thirty-eight of the company’s employees will either be reassigned outside Alaska or interview for new jobs with Hilcorp.
hilcorp.com

Slow down global warming by sending North Slope natural gas overseas: that’s the sales pitch from the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC), based on a new report. The state-backed firm hired experts from EXP, SLR Consulting, and Ashworth Leininger Group, who conclude that Chinese power plants could cut carbon dioxide emissions in half by importing liquified natural gas instead of burning local coal. The study also found that the proposed 807-mile gasline from Prudhoe Bay to Nikiski would have less environmental impact than rival LNG projects on the US Gulf Coast and Australia. AGDC is seeking long-term customers to finance construction of the estimated $40 billion gasline.
agdc.us

Alaska USA Federal Credit Union is seeking federal regulatory approval to merge with Washington-based Global Credit Union. The combination of the Anchorage-based financial institution, with 700,000 members in Alaska, Washington, California, and Arizona, and the 45,000 members of Global Credit Union in Washington, Idaho, and military bases in Italy, would create one of the fifteen largest credit unions in the country, with more than $11 billion in assets.
alaskausa.org

Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium is looking for a new CEO. Garvin Federenko resigned as CEO in October to “pursue new business opportunities,” Alaska’s News Source reports. Federenko began working for the state’s largest tribal health organization in 1998. He became chief financial officer in 2020 and was elevated to CEO earlier this year. He was also briefly acting president, after the resignation in February of Andy Teuber, who later disappeared in a helicopter crash. Former lieutenant governor Valerie Nurr’araaluk Davidson has since been named consortium president.
anthc.org

A hired gun is taking over as CEO of Juneau’s city-owned hospital. The board of Bartlett Regional Hospital named Jerel Humphrey as interim chief executive, a job he does across the country, most recently in Pennsylvania. Humphrey replaces Kathy Callahan, who had been chief nursing officer and came out of retirement in September after the previous CEO, Rose Lawhorne, abruptly resigned.
bartletthospital.org

Idled office space in downtown Anchorage, Midtown, and the UMed areas led to decreased power sales for Chugach Electric Association, according to a filing with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska. Chugach reports a $16.2 million annual loss from its North District, formerly served by Municipal Light & Power (ML&P), compared to $400,000 in reduced sales from the Southern District, which is mostly residential. Chugach is asking regulators to adjust the terms of its billion-dollar purchase of ML&P to keep a promise not to raise electricity rates.
chugachelectric.com

Some of the country’s best barbecue-flavored potato chips are made in the middle of Anchorage. Out of thirty regional brands sampled by food critic Kevin Pang for America’s Test Kitchen, Alaska Chip Company’s Grizzly Chip ranked among the six winners. Since that announcement, company owner Ralph Carney says he’s been seeing interest from out-of-state distributors. Grizzly Chip was the flagship product when Alaska Chip Company started turning locally grown potatoes into crispy snacks in 2003.
akchip.com