NEWS BULLETIN

January 13, 2005 --- Vol. 11, No. 3January 2005

Pioneer expands activities in Alaska; signs second NPR-A deal with ConocoPhillips, Anadarko

Pioneer Natural Resources said this morning that it has signed an exploration agreement with ConocoPhillips Alaska and Anadarko Petroleum for a 20 percent interest in approximately 452,000 additional acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and will participate in an NPR-A exploration program in the first quarter of this year with ConocoPhillips as operator.

The deal gives Pioneer rights to “extensive seismic and geologic data” in the NPR-A Northeast planning area.

In 2004 Pioneer signed an exploration agreement with the same companies, acquiring a 20 percent interest in 167,000 acres in the Northeast planning area and in adjacent federal offshore waters.

Pioneer participated in the Northwest NPR-A lease sale last year, acquiring working interests ranging from 20 to 30 percent on approximately 808,000 acres, the company said.

“This new joint venture agreement positions us to participate in near-term, high-impact exploration opportunities on trend with existing discoveries. The new acreage complements our existing NPR-A acreage as it is much closer to infrastructure and could provide a bridge to our large holdings in the northwest,” Scott Sheffield, Pioneer’s chairman and CEO, said in a written statement. “When all of the related assignments have been approved, Pioneer will have amassed an Alaskan undeveloped acreage portfolio in excess of 1.6 million gross acres and will hold the third largest net position in the state.”

Editor’s note: See the full story in the Jan. 16 edition of Petroleum News, which will be available online on Friday afternoon, Jan. 14 at www.PetroleumNews.com

Alaska governor changes oil production tax, wants piece of TAPS

See the Associated Press story on Gov. Frank Murkowski’s State of the State speech last night before a joint session of the Alaska Legislature posted on Petroleum News’ web page (www.PetroleumNews.com). This story and other related articles are also available on most search engines, including www.Google.com. For a full transcript of the governor’s speech go to http://www.gov.state.ak.us/speeches.php?id=1468


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