NEWS BULLETIN

April 04, 1999 --- Vol. 5, No. 18April 1999

Export license extended

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy said April 2 that it has granted the export license extension application of Phillips Alaska Natural Gas Corp. and Marathon Oil Co. for the LNG plant at Nikiski.

In late 1996, Phillips and Marathon applied for a five-year extension for the 2004 through 2009 period. The LNG purchasers, Tokyo Electric and Tokyo Gas, had signed a letter of agreement in 1993 to extend their purchase commitment for the 2004 through 2009 period.

The extension was protested by Enstar Natural Gas Co., Union Oil Company of Calif., Northern Eclipse LLC and Fairbanks Natural Gas LLC jointly and Aurora Gas Inc. DOE said that the protesters argued, based in large part on supply and demand studies, that approval of the application would cause a shortage of natural gas in Southcentral Alaska during the five-year extension period.

DOE said that after review of data submitted by applicants and protesters and other available data, it found evidence of adequate supplies of natural gas in Cook Inlet during the proposed extension period.

NPR-A sale set for May 5

The U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management said April 5 that the lease sale for the northeast portion of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska will be held May 5. Bids will be opened at 9 am at the Wilda Marston theater in the Loussac Public Library in Anchorage.

A preliminary notice of the sale was released in January. Potential bidders may obtain a detailed statement for sale 991 from the public information center at the BLM state office in Anchorage, 222 West 7th Avenue #13, phone 907 271-5960. The bid packet will include, among other things, a description of the areas offered for lease, lease terms, conditions and special stipulations and information on how and where to submit bids.

ANS term price up 25 percent

BP Amoco's April term price for Alaska North Slope crude is $13.06 a barrel, up $2.59 a barrel, 24.7 percent, from March's term price of $10.47 a barrel.

In January the term price was $9.37 a barrel, the lowest it had been since July 1986 when it stood at $9 a barrel.

The year-to-date average term price is $10.92 a barrel, down 23 percent from the comparable 1998 year-to-date average of $14.19 a barrel. The 1999 April term price is 7 percent above the 1998 April term price of $12.23 a barrel.

The term price represents an average of spot prices for the previous month. BP Amoco has the largest percent of ANS production and is the only producer to post term prices.

North Slope production up 4 percent

Alaska North Slope crude oil and natural gas production averaged 1,176,367 barrels a day in March, up 4 percent from 1,130,801 barrels in February.

Endicott production dropped significantly because of tie-in work at the field for enhanced oil recovery, averaging only 38,055 barrels a day - down 27.8 percent from an average of 52,705 barrels a day in February.

Production at all other fields was up for the month. The largest percentage increase (8.69 percent) was at the Milne Point field, which averaged 56,542 barrels. Kuparuk production averaged 281,877 barrels a day, up 8.65 percent from February. Prudhoe Bay production averaged 583,667 barrels a day, up 2.83 percent from February. The Lisburne production center averaged 145,725 barrels a day, up 1.61 percent from February. Prudhoe Bay natural gas liquids production averaged 70,501 barrels a day, up 27 percent from February.

Cook Inlet production averaged 30,499 barrels a day, up 1.6 percent from February.


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