Only 1 applicant so far to replace North Dakota’s retiring oil regulator

Candidates aren’t exactly lining up to replace Lynn Helms. 

A consulting firm hired to help replace Helms, North Dakota’s top oil regulator, will continue to recruit candidates in the face of lighter than expected interest. 

“The flow of interested candidates is there, but perhaps a little slower than we might hope,” Jonathan Martin of Preng and Associates told a search committee on Monday. 

Martin said there has been one applicant to apply to be director of the Department of Mineral Resources through the official state portal. 

“We’re asking the candidates that we generate to apply to the portal as well,” Martin said.

North Dakota oil regulator Lynn Helms to retire

Houston-based Preng and Associates is an executive search firm for the energy industry. 

Martin said the firm would continue reaching out to candidates and will network at the upcoming Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck May 14-16. 

Helms announced in January that he would be retiring at the end of June. Helms was appointed to lead the Oil and Gas Division in 1998. In 2005, the Oil and Gas Division merged with the North Dakota Geological Survey and was reorganized as the Department of Mineral Resources, where Helms has continued to serve as director.

Since then, advancements in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have helped North Dakota become the nation’s No. 3 oil producing state. 

Reice Haase, deputy executive director for the Industrial Commission, which oversees the Department of Mineral Resources, said in an email that the application period to replace Helms will be open until May 31. 

A search committee will recommend three to five finalists to the Industrial Commission for final interviews, which will be public. 

Haase said those interviews should happen next month. 

Haase said Preng and Associates were contracted to help with the search, to be paid up to $75,000. 

“The market feedback in general has been very positive,” Martin said.  “There is a lot of respect for Lynn and the job he has done.”