The Only Alaskan-Owned Producer: HEX/Furie keeps the lights on for local oil and gas. (HEX Cook Inlet)

• Date: 01 October 2023
• Author: Marshall, Terri
• Published date: 01 October 2023

When John Hendrix's company HEX Cook Inlet purchased Furie Operating Alaska, it was run by outside management and there was only one Alaskan working there. Now the company is 100 percent Alaskan-owned and operated.

In August 2019, Furie Operating Alaska filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and was marketed nationally to find new owners. At a December 2019 auction overseen by the courts, Hendrix made the highest bid, securing the rights to purchase Furie. In July 2020, Hendrix's newly formed HEX Cook Inlet acquired the rest of Furie and its partners Cornucopia Oil & Gas Company and Corsair Oil & Gas in bankruptcy proceedings. With those acquisitions complete, Furie Operating Alaska became the state's only Alaskan-owned natural gas producer.

Hendrix believes more oil and gas businesses need to be owned and operated by Alaskans, but that requires an understanding of the business. "I think it would be good for our residents to have a more intimate knowledge of the oil and gas industry," he explains. "The primary talent base has really been from out of state, but we have home-grown energy here and we need more home-grown people that understand it. We have locally owned companies in the oil and gas support industry, like Udelhoven Oilfield Support Services, Petroleum Equipment & Services, and Pollard Wireline, so why not more locally owned producers?"

In Hendrix's opinion, an increased knowledge about the oil and gas industry among Alaskans would lead to an increased comfort level across the entire industry. "There's always been this untrusting relationship between Alaskans and Outside companies. It's personified in the movies and everywhere else," he says. "I'm the only Alaskan owner producing gas for our state, and I don't think that is good for Alaska. It's also not good for the oil and gas industry. If our residents see more Alaskan-owned companies in the industry, they will trust that companies are doing the right thing for our state and aren't here just to make a fast buck and leave a mess for Alaskans to clean up."

Why Outside Companies Run the Show

Furie's Kitchen Lights Unit (KLU) leases cover Upper Cook Inlet waters about 5 miles offshore from a beach north of Nikiski; in the other direction, about 5 miles inland, is the site of Alaska's first major oil discovery. Congress deemed that 1957 discovery at Swanson River as a secure economic base in Alaska, and thus Cook Inlet oil and gas laid the foundation for statehood. "With oil and gas...