NEWS BULLETIN

October 20, 2004 --- Vol. 10, No. 91October 2004

Governor: producers embrace state’s equity concept

Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski met with the North Slope producers in Pasadena, Calif., Oct. 19, and said today that substantial progress had been made in advancing Alaska’s gasline project.

“The single most significant event that made these meetings possible was the success of our congressional delegation in obtaining the federal incentives necessary to advance the prospect to the next phase — the development of a stranded gas act contract between the state and the producers,” the governor said in a statement.

Murkowski said the producers have embraced the state’s equity concept, which he presented to legislators Oct. 13. He said the state has set a target date of Oct. 28 to submit its proposal to the producers, and the producers have indicated it will be their goal to respond within a week.

Michael Chambers, the governor’s deputy press secretary, told Petroleum News that what will be submitted to the producers will be “our fiscal terms which we expect will incorporate what we envision the equity stake to be.”

The producers will then submit their proposal, and negotiation will begin on the specifics.

Negotiations will then continue as the state’s stranded gas team works with the producers to develop a final proposal to submit to the Legislature early in the coming session.

North Slope producers at the Pasadena meeting were: Jim Mulva, CEO and chairman of ConocoPhillips, Houston; Bill Berry, executive vice president, exploration, ConocoPhillips, Houston; Tony Howard, CEO, BP Exploration, London; Steve Marshall, president, BP Exploration (Alaska), Anchorage; and Rex Tillerson, president, ExxonMobil, Dallas.

Fish and Wildlife, Doyon, draft land exchange at Yukon Flats

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said today that it has negotiated a draft land exchange with Doyon Ltd., an Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act corporation, for lands in the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge.

The agency said negotiators for Doyon and the Fish and Wildlife Service “have agreed in principle to provide Doyon title to some refuge lands that may hold developable oil and gas resources.” In exchange, Fish and Wildlife will receive habitat currently owned by Doyon within the refuge boundary consisting of “wetlands previously identified by the Service as quality fish and wildlife habitat.”

Under the proposed agreement Doyon would receive lands with prospects for oil and gas while an estimated 98,000 acres of “quality fish and wildlife habitat” would be added to the refuge.

The agency said the increase of 98,000 acres is calculated based on: an estimated 150,000 acres to be received by the Service in the exchange minus 110,000 acres of surface/subsurface conveyed to Doyon in the exchange, plus 58,000 acres of Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act entitlement acres that will not be taken within the refuge.


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