IGreg Razo Appointed to CIRI Board

CIRI shareholder Greg Razo was appointed to fill a vacancy on the CIRI Board of Directors at the March 2003 Board meeting.

Razo, who is of Yup’ik descent, is an attorney with Cole & Razo, LLC, in Kodiak, Alaska. He is an assembly member of the Kodiak Island Borough and serves on the budget advisory committee; a director and executive committee member of Alaska Legal Services Corp. as well as Alaska Pro Bono Program, Inc.; and a director of Kodiak-Baranov Productions, Inc.

“My legal training and my experience in policy-making will be valuable on the CIRI Board, and I believe that I can work as a Board member who is committed to the long-term needs of other CIRI shareholders and the company,” said Razo.
Razo will fill the seat through its term expiring in 2004.

Greg Razo

ICIRI Joins the Push for Gas Pipeline

CIRI has joined Arctic Slope Regional Corp. and Koniag Inc. in the initial start-up funding for Pacific Star Energy, a limited liability corporation formed with the intent of owning five to 10 percent of a North Slope gas project. CIRI President and Chief Executive Officer Carl Marrs told Petroleum News Alaska in an April 2, 2003 article he believes Native ownership in a proposed North Slope gas pipeline would increase the project’s political clout in Alaska and Washington, DC.

“We got involved because we think the gas pipeline is inevitable, and as a regional corporation we’d like to participate at some level in it,” said Marrs. “From CIRI’s standpoint, we bring something other than just money to the table: We bring political power,” he said. “If all the regional corporations participate, along with other major Alaska companies, it will be a pretty powerful force in getting this pipeline moving.”

Pacific Star Energy is a proposed consortium of Alaska companies headed by Ken Thompson, formerly executive vice president for ARCO’s Asia Pacific region, head of global natural gas marketing, and president of ARCO Alaska Inc. Thompson is also pursuing the other Alaska Native regional corporations and Alaska businesses and institutions to join the consortium. The consortium is pushing for a pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Fairbanks and then down the Alaska Highway to bring North Slope gas to Outside markets.