Washington (CNN) A former Interior Department official who oversaw oil and gas drilling on federal lands is joining an oil company with plans to expand operations in Alaska, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Joe Balash, who served as the department's assistant secretary for land and minerals management since late 2017, confirmed to the Post that he plans to begin working for Oil Search, a Papua New Guinea-based company that is "developing one of Alaska's largest oil prospects in years." Balash resigned from his post at the department last Friday, according to the paper.

Balash joins a growing list of former Trump administration officials who left their posts with the government for private sector jobs in industries they helped regulate, raising concerns among government watchdog groups and ethics experts. That list includes former Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt who began consulting for a Kentucky coal baron after resigning last year amid an ethics scandal.

The Post said Balash, who would not divulge details of his new role with Oil Search to the paper, said he would "abide by the Trump ethics pledge barring appointees from lobbying their former agencies for five years" despite the fact that he would be managing employees who would coordinate with the federal government on energy policy.

"I have a ton of restrictions dealing with the Department of Interior. Most of Oil Search's properties are state lands. There isn't really the federal nexus," Balash told the Post, which noted that the company has not bid on federal leases in Alaska.

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