The North Dakota Industrial Commission named Nathan Anderson, a Chevron employee and North Dakota native, as the new director of the state Department of Mineral Resources on Wednesday, replacing longtime director Lynn Helms, who retired after more than two decades.
The public-facing job is to both regulate and promote the oil and gas industry. It has a wide range of responsibilities beyond petroleum, including overseeing the state’s paleontology team, permitting carbon capture and playing an active role at the state Legislature.
Anderson worked in Colorado for PDC Energy, purchased by Chevron last year. He will move from Colorado to North Dakota, pending salary negotiations.
He beat out Kevin Connors for the job. Connors, assistant director for regulatory compliance and energy policy at the University of North Dakota Energy and Environmental Research Center, had worked at Mineral Resources years prior to his time at the EERC.
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Members of the Industrial Commission — which is made up of the governor, attorney general and agriculture commissioner — described both candidates as highly qualified, but cited Anderson’s experience in leading teams to develop oil and gas fields across the country, and the relationships that have come with that, as what the department will need in the coming years.
“Part of Lynn’s success was that when he had joined us he had almost 24 years of industry experience,” Gov. Doug Burgum said.
Chevron is seeking to purchase Hess, which is one of North Dakota’s largest oil producers. Hess also once employed Helms. The deal is being scrutinized by federal regulators. Industry experts say it mostly revolves around a huge oil discovery in South America that Hess has a stake in, but comments from company officials indicate that Chevron plans to keep Hess’ assets active in North Dakota, as well.
The state will begin working out a contract with Anderson with an advertised pay range between $250,000 and $350,000, though that could possibly go up, Burgum suggested.
“This would entail a pay cut for Nathan; this is not a surprise,” he said.
In a statement, Anderson said “I am honored to be chosen for this role and am excited to be able to serve the DMR, its employees, the energy industry and the people of the great state of North Dakota.”
Anderson will take over as North Dakota’s oil industry faces a consequential period. While the boom has died down, the state is responsible for around 10% of U.S. production, making it the third-largest producer in the country. Oil and gas also provide a majority of state revenue.
But Helms in past comments emphasized certain challenges for continued production in North Dakota in the coming decades.
One is regulatory. Though oil and gas is not going anywhere, the industry’s role in climate change has fueled a swath of new federal regulations that the state is actively pushing back against out of concerns it would hinder development. This is especially the case when it comes to eliminating flaring, or burning off, natural gas at oil wells. A change in presidential administrations could bring relief to the industry, but many companies are still working to tamp down on flaring due to market and public demands for a cleaner product.
This can be more of a challenge in North Dakota than elsewhere due to infrastructure constraints, state officials say, and addressing it will require a large buildout for transport and use for all the gas.
The other challenges are physical. As reservoirs age, pressure drops, bringing more gas to the surface. More gas makes flaring regulations more difficult to deal with. An aging reservoir also means less oil available through more traditional extraction methods. Helms has said addressing this would require a major buildout of pipelines, transporting carbon dioxide from out of state to the Bakken, where CO2 can loosen up the hard-to-recover oil. Though pipelines are beyond jurisdiction of the department, it remains active in permitting and developing carbon storage technology with companies.
In one of his last speeches as director earlier this year, Helms gave advice for whoever takes over: “Get out of the way.”
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Publish date : 2024-08-12 20:30:00
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