President
Ron Ness is President of the North Dakota Petroleum Council (NDPC), a position he has held since 1999. The Council has been the primary voice of the oil and gas industry in North Dakota since 1952 and today represents more than 550 companies engaged across all aspects of the industry in North Dakota, South Dakota, and the Rocky Mountain region, including operations in the Williston Basin and the Bakken. As President, Mr. Ness leads the Council’s governmental relations work and serves as the industry’s spokesman in the state.
A native of Tolna, North Dakota, Mr. Ness previously served as President of the North Dakota Retail and Petroleum Marketers Association and spent roughly a decade with the State of North Dakota, most of it as Deputy Commissioner of Labor. He is a graduate of North Dakota State University in business and economics and holds a master’s degree in management from the University of Mary.
Mr. Ness has been appointed by successive North Dakota governors to bodies including the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, the Oil and Gas Research Council, the Empower North Dakota Commission, and the Governor’s Revenue Advisory Committee. He chairs the board of the EERC Foundation and serves on the boards of the University of Mary, the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance, and other state institutions. In 2022 he received the Energy and Environmental Research Center’s Energy Champion Award.
