The Alaska Department of Natural Resources announced it has hired a new deputy commissioner in charge of oil and gas.
Mark Wiggin left Brooks Range Petroleum to take the post, where he worked as an engineering and development manager.
The deputy commissioner role has been vacant since March, when Marty Rutherford temporarily stepped in to the lead role at the Department of Natural Resources before she became a trustee of the Permanent Fund Corporation Board.
Wiggin will work under Commissioner Andy Mack, who took the reins of the Department in July. (Wiggin is currently vice chair of Alaska Public Media’s board of directors.)
In a press release announcing the hire, Mack touted Wiggin’s three decades of experience in Alaska’s oil fields, including big developments like Lisburne, Alpine and Mustang. Before working at Brooks Range Petroleum, Wiggin was at ASRC Energy Services focusing on the Alaska Gas Pipeline Project and the Nikaitchuq oil field.
“His knowledge of upstream oil and gas issues, his experience in project development, and his work on resource economics and policy will add valuable expertise to DNR,” Mack said
Elizabeth Harball is a reporter with Alaska's Energy Desk, covering Alaska’s oil and gas industry and environmental policy. She is a contributor to the Energy Desk’s Midnight Oil podcast series. Before moving to Alaska in 2016, Harball worked at E&E News in Washington, D.C., where she covered federal and state climate change policy. Originally from Kalispell, Montana, Harball is a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
