By Ernest Scheyder
WILLISTON, N.D. (Reuters) - North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple, who shepherded the state through an oil boom that made it the No. 2 U.S. crude producer, surprised political observers on Monday by announcing he will not seek re-election in 2016.
Since taking office in 2010, Dalrymple helped tighten regulatory standards across the state's Bakken oil formation, steps that some critics had decried as too lenient though ones the governor had repeatedly defended as crucial and adequate.
"North Dakota has made incredible progress and I feel so blessed to have been part of leading our state," Dalrymple, 66, said in a statement, saying he wants to spend more time with family.
The retirement sets up a mad dash to replace the popular Republican governor. At least four senior state politicians are rumored to be eyeing the governor's mansion, including Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, a Republican, and U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat.
Heitkamp's office declined to comment on a potential run, though in a statement the senator praised Dalrymple as "someone who will listen to all sides of a debate and work with those who disagree with him."
Stenehjem, in office since 2000, said that as recently as Monday morning he had expected Dalrymple to run again.
"It's too early to make plans for my own future," Stenehjem told Reuters.
As the chair of the three-member North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC), Dalrymple held enormous power over the state's oil industry, which began to grow in 2008 and only mushroomed once he took office, attracting labor and investment dollars from across the world. For a time, it gave the state the lowest unemployment rate in the nation.
During his tenure, North Dakota's oil production nearly more than tripled to roughly 1.2 million barrels per day, an output eclipsing most OPEC members.
Yet Dalrymple, who like many of the state's politicians received campaign contributions from the oil industry, and other NDIC commissioners had to grapple with the increasing opposition to flaring, the wasteful burning of natural gas, as well as a string of deadly crude-by-rail disasters throughout the nation that fueled perceptions North Dakota's safety standards were not sufficient.
Addressing these concerns, Dalrymple unilaterally announced last year the state would push corporations to nearly double pipeline capacity in order to curb flaring, an environmental and economic boondoggle.
He also pushed through regulations that require every barrel of oil be filtered for dangerous types of natural gas in order to make crude-by-rail transport safer, steps that were aggressively opposed by the state's energy industry.
Brad Bekkedahl, a city commissioner and state senator from Williston, epicenter of the state's oil industry, said Dalrymple's term in office "will be judged as one that brought unprecedented prosperity and growth."