Published: June 9, 2017 |

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For decades the oil and gas industry has been a lifeline for Alaska, and even though oil prices are down, the industry continues to drive Alaska’s economy.

“Between 2015 and 2016, the Alaska economy has lost about 6,500 jobs,” said Jim Calvin, McDowell Group. “That’s about 2 percent of our employment base.”

Earlier this week, the McDowell Group gave a presentation at the Alaska Oil and Gas Association conference at the Dena’ina Center, revealing new information from a study focused on understanding how spending by oil and gas industry filters through Alaska’s economy.

In 2016, the Calvin says the oil and gas industry accounted for $6 billion dollars in earnings and about 104,000 jobs, which accounts for about a third of Alaska’s economy. Those numbers are down since the last time the McDowell Group completed a similar study in 2013. Back then industry wages were up to $6.4 billion and jobs were around 111,000.

“What this tells us is a healthy oil and gas economy is a healthy Alaskan economy,” said Calvin. “A weakened oil and gas economy is a weakened Alaska economy and I think most profound of all, though we’ve done this study five times now, it’s a continued reminder of just how important that spending is. How important it is that we encourage spending on exploration, development, on renewal, so that we can enjoy those tremendous near term multiplier effects that create thousands of jobs in the short term in Alaska related to oil industry activity and over the long term enjoy those taxes and royalties that feed state government and have their own powerful set of multiplier effects creating jobs and wages for many thousands of Alaskans.”

The full report by the McDowell Group is expected to be released in about a week. The study was paid for by the Alaska Oil and Gas Association.

Source: (June 2, 2017) KTUU

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