Oklahoma House of Representatives
Mike W. Ray, Media Division Director
January 13, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Speaker Larry E. Adair
Capitol: (405) 557-7394
Stilwell: (918) 696-7718

OKLAHOMA CITY -- State House Speaker Larry E. Adair recently appointed three people to the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board, and one to the Storage Tank Advisory Council.

-- Adair, D-Stilwell, appointed Joe Stephenson, Jr., to an unexpired term on the advisory council. Stephenson, who is with Stephenson Oil Co. of Tulsa, will represent storage tank owners and/or operators for the next 11 months; his term expires Dec. 2.

The purpose of the nine-member Storage Tank Advisory Council, Adair related, is to recommend to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission rules to implement the state Underground Storage Tank Regulation Act, the Aboveground Storage Tank Regulation Act, and the Petroleum Tank Release Indemnity Fund program. The council also provides a public forum for discussion of issues it considers relevant to its areas of jurisdiction.

-- Adair appointed Steve Slawson and Ed Shipp, and reappointed Rodney Myers, to the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board.

Slawson, an independent oil producer, is with Slawson Exploration of Oklahoma City. Myers, who also is an independent producer, is with Latigo Petroleum of Tulsa. Both will serve three-year terms on the OERB that expire Jan. 7, 2007. Shipp, of Houston, is the regulatory and safety manager for the U.S. Production Unit of ExxonMobil Production Co.; he is serving a three-year term that expires Dec. 8, 2006.

The Oklahoma Energy Resources Board was created by the Legislature in 1993 at the request of the petroleum industry. The 18-member panel is comprised of independent oil and/or natural gas producers and representatives of major oil companies that conduct business in this state.

The board administers the Oklahoma Energy Education and Marketing Act, and is empowered to "make contracts and agreements for ... programs beneficial to the oil industry."

With voluntary contributions from oil and natural gas producers and royalty owners, the OERB restores abandoned and orphaned oil sites targeted by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry.

Nearly 5,200 deteriorated oil production sites throughout the state have been rehabilitated over the past nine years, OERB Executive Director Mike Terry related. "We're now doing about a thousand sites a year," which is an average of a little over 19 sites per week, or slightly more than six each week, he noted. The OERB has spent about $20 million on its oilfield clean-up projects, Terry said.

The OERB also is charged with educating the public about the contributions of the oil and natural gas industry. For example, the agency is conducting its seventh annual Petroleum Challenge, a statewide competition among students in grades 9-12 that features an essay contest and a quiz show designed to teach high school students about various aspects of the petroleum industry.
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