Business leaders in Kodiak were treated to lunch and a presentation Friday by an Alaska group advocating greater production and development of state oil resources.

The dire economic consequences presented for not acting to change the current state oil tax structure, however, may have left some without much of an appetite.

The Kodiak Chamber of Commerce sponsored the event with Mark Hamilton, former University of Alaska President, who has come out of retirement to speak across the state with the Making Alaska Competitive Coalition (MACC).

Hamilton was invited to speak by Will Anderson, President of Koniag Inc. who is on the steering committee of MACC.

“What (the coalition) is really about is educating the broader community about the perils we’re facing in regard to the oil tax situation and our lack of competitiveness in the world economy when it comes to attracting capital dollars from the oil industry,” Anderson said.

With oil royalties and taxes funding 90 percent of the state budget and footing the bill for public services, Hamilton said it was essential to consider the long-term integrity of the Trans Alaska pipeline, which is currently running at only one-third full.

“If you're Alaskan, you’re in the oil business,” Hamilton said. “It’s time we learn something about the business we are all in.”

The decline in the throughput of oil in the pipeline, as well as the more viscous and cooler oil coming from maturing fields, equates to a limit where oil could stop flowing through the pipeline altogether if further production and exploration doesn’t take place.

That limit could come in about three years at the current rate of decline, Hamilton said.

“It could quite literally freeze up,” he said. “If that thing freezes, you’re not talking about a slow withdraw from … this tremendous revenue stream we have. It stops. It’s just boom, nothing’s flowing.”