Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti
announced Monday that he was tapping a Long Beach petroleum engineer to
oversee oil and gas operations in the city, filling a job that had not been held full time for decades.
Garcetti
and his staff praised Uduak-Joe Ntuk, newly chosen as petroleum
administrator, as an expert with technical knowledge who could also
engage with the community.
Ntuk “has the skills and background to work with our residents, industry and regulators — to
help manage oil and gas activities in our neighborhoods, and play a
role in steering L.A. toward a cleaner, more sustainable future,”
Garcetti said in a statement.
Ntuk has been employed by the city
of Long Beach as a petroleum engineering associate, helping to oversee
an oil field operated by the city. He worked previously for the
petroleum giant Chevron in the San Joaquin Valley.
“I
will focus on doing everything we can to protect the health and safety
of L.A.’s communities, while taking a measured approach to the many
complex issues raised by fossil fuel extraction in a large city,” Ntuk
said in a statement released by Garcetti.
Matt Petersen, chief sustainability officer for Garcetti, called Ntuk “a fairly unique candidate with oil and gas expertise.”
“It
was also important to the mayor and the Board of Public Works to find
someone familiar with working with the community,” Petersen said.
Beyond
his engineering work, Ntuk has also been active in Democratic politics
in Southern California: He ran unsuccessfully for the Long Beach Unified
school board two years ago and served as president of
the Long Beach Democratic Club in recent years. He also garnered
attention at the California Democratic Convention in Anaheim last year,
after he recorded a politically damaging video of U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez imitating a Native American “war cry.”
The
hire had been closely watched by environmental activists with the
STAND-L.A. Coalition, who complained that a City Council vote to
specifically find someone with “experience or credentials” in the oil
and gas field would result in candidates skewed toward the
industry. Richard Parks, president of the nonprofit Redeemer Community
Partnership, said he didn’t immediately see a “public health
perspective” reflected in Ntuk’s credentials.
“I personally don’t
know him but it appears that they have turned to someone with strong
ties to the industry,” Parks said, citing the fact that Ntuk had
previously worked for Chevron.
Rock Zierman, CEO of the California
Independent Petroleum Assn., said the industry group was “pleased that
the city hired an administrator with technical expertise.” The group had
earlier encouraged L.A. to hire “a qualified technical
professional with experience in oil and gas production.”
For
decades, city codes have laid out a long list of duties for the
petroleum administrator, who is supposed to coordinate all matters tied
to oil and gas production across Los Angeles. But over time, the job had
been reduced to an off-and-on duty performed by a city analyst.
The absence of an active, involved petroleum administrator had become a bone of contention
with environmental and neighborhood activists, who argue that
government agencies that regulate oil and gas drilling have neglected to
coordinate to protect neighbors living near urban wells.
For
instance, complaints about foul odors and nosebleeds near a South L.A.
drilling site piled up for years before the problems grabbed headlines
and AllenCo Energy Inc. agreed to suspend operations. The company has
paid millions for fines and upgrades since and, under a court injunction
won by City Atty. Mike Feuer, can reopen only after meeting new restrictions.
Activists
argue that regulators were too slow to respond to the problems,
especially since L.A. had imposed conditions decades earlier that were supposed to stop odors and other hazards from bothering neighbors.
The risks of oil and gas operations again drew attention
after a massive gas leak just north of the city prodded thousands of
people out of their homes in Porter Ranch. That debacle — along with a
string of disputes over oil extraction in South L.A. neighborhoods and a lawsuit accusing the city of “rubber-stamping” drilling plans — has ramped up pressure on city officials to tighten municipal oversight over oil and gas operations.
In February, City Council President Herb Wesson proposed that the city immediately fill the job, saying the city needed “a more proactive approach.”
In an interview, Ntuk said he would serve as a “single point of contact for community stakeholders.”
He
and other city officials said he would also make recommendations to
city leaders on petroleum issues, assess if drilling sites are complying
with local, state and federal laws, and coordinate with other city
departments to address concerns about existing sites.
Ntuk is expected to start work in early October, overseeing the
newly created Office of Petroleum and Natural Gas Administration and
Safety within the Board of Public Works.
His anticipated salary is roughly $133,500 annually.
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