No more secret oil deals!

Our eyes are on an upcoming alaska supreme court case that will establish a precedent for future sales and transactions of Alaska oil and gas. Here’s what you should know.

Why we’re talking about Hilcorp

In August 2019, BP announced plans to sell all of its Alaska assets to affiliates of Texas-based oil company Hilcorp Energy Co. This nearly $6 billion sale was unprecedented in the relatively short time since Alaska’s oil boom of the 1970s. BP is the first dominant Trans-Alaska Pipeline System owner to entirely exit our state under untested promises to remediate infrastructure at the end of TAPS, but it will not be the last. Moreover, unlike BP, a multinational and publicly traded company, Hilcorp and its midstream counterpart Harvest have not been required to disclose basic financial information to the public as private limited liability companies. For this reason, as well as Hilcorp’s sketchy record of environmental and safety violations, the sale caused serious concerns within Alaska and raised eyebrows worldwide. 

  • Despite the fact that a sale of this magnitude had both never happened before and never happened between a public and privately owned company, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, or RCA, opted to let BP and Hilcorp keep confidential both details of the deal as well as Hilcorp’s financial health.

    The RCA inevitably approved the deal on this secret record in December 2020. Essentially kept in the dark, this meant that Alaskans effectively did not have real assurance that Hilcorp could either truly afford to become Alaska’s second-largest oil and gas operator or afford to respond appropriately in the case of an environmental disaster. If BP wanted out, state officials seemed to decide they could do nothing more than not make an enemy out of Hilcorp, so a green light based upon a secret record came as no real surprise.

  • Effectively, if the process of approving the BP-Hilcorp transfer on a secret record is ignored, it will set a regressive precedent for future sales and transactions of Alaska oil and gas. Alaskans deserve to know more about the multibillion-dollar companies making enormous profits from our natural resources. Alaskans cannot advocate for comprehensive fiscal policies, oil taxes or other legislation without the information necessary to create good policy.

  • On June 28, the Alaska Supreme Court will hear arguments on the city of Valdez’s cases related to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska’s approval of the BP-Hilcorp deal. Alaska Supreme Court oral arguments are open to the public and will also be live-streamed. Alaskans need to attend this particular court hearing in person to demonstrate to the powers that be that the public is still watching and cares about this issue.

    To get involved reach out to Arleigh at arleigh@fbxclimateaction.org