Oil and gas industry leads Kenai Peninsula Economy: tourism, health care, education and retail aim to diversity.

• Author: Bohi, Heidi
• Position: TOWNS IN TRANSITION

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Gas brings industry and industry brings jobs. You don't have to live on the Kenai Peninsula to fully appreciate the far-reaching implications of this simple summation of the economic impact of one of Alaska's largest industries, and one that can be solely credited for making this region what it is today.

Cruise ships bring visitors and visitors create jobs. Again, the resulting employment benefits and the injection of revenues into communities from one of the state's most promising industries is not exclusive to Kenai Peninsula communities, though it is certainly an area that draws more travelers than many of its sister regions.

So as Cook Inlet's 50-year-old gas fields are declining, and at the same time the visitor industry is taking one of the biggest hits in 20 years, the major communities on the Kenai Peninsula of Homer, Kenai, Soldotna and Seward are cautiously optimistic. Although they have not lost hope and continue to give most of the attention to the proven industries of oil and tourism, at the same time the borough is expanding and diversifying into new areas of development. And though possibly not providing for the region on the same scale as oil and gas and tourism, will hopefully provide a stopgap with long-term relief and lay the groundwork for the next generation of peninsula residents.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

In the meantime, from kitchen tables to conference rooms across the Kenai Peninsula, for residents and businesses here, the No. 1 topic of concern is the need for jobs as they face the reality that hoping for the good old days will get them nothing more than a tin cup on a street corner.

OIL AND GAS

"After 49 years, we are watching the slow deterioration of oil on the Peninsula--that is what's on residents' minds," says David Carey, Kenai Peninsula Borough mayor and former Soldotna mayor, after his first year in office, adding that a long-term sustainable natural gas supply and energy access for the entire Kenai Peninsula Borough continues to be its top specific method for ensuring jobs and economic opportunity for commerce and residents.

Oil and gas exploration has been a part of the Kenai Peninsula Borough's history for almost 150 years when Russian explorers first observed oil seeps on the west side of lower Cook Inlet. By 1957, exploration wells resulted in the discovery of Alaska's first commercially viable oil find in the Swanson River field. The Cook Inlet Basin has been a focal point for...