Conoco does claim to be Alaska's Oil Company and they have good reason to. They try to keep as much of the fabrication (most modules are in built in ANC, FBX or KNA), materials acquisition in state and hire local as best as they can.  Granted, I work in the oil and gas industry, I have worked several projects for them and found them to be more true to their word than some of the other operators that I have worked with.  You can poor mouth the southbound workers as much as you want but you cannot legally limit who can and can't work in this state so your comment on us paying for planeloads to take money out of state is ridiculous. What have you paid out of your own pocket to support that claim?  I've lived in Alaska for 34 years and have had to seek work elsewhere due to the economy (I still live in Wasilla, grew up in Palmer) so I'm not going to fault other workers for doing so as well. Also, to find quality or specialized talent that lives in state is hard enough without limitations.