An EnCana spokesman confirmed Oct. 19 that the company had sold 19 of its 24 federal Beaufort Sea leases to Shell Offshore (see earlier news bulletin), and had also sold the five remaining leases to an “unnamed party.”
The U.S. Minerals Management Service said the five leases were sold to ConocoPhillips.
On Oct. 18 “five assignments were filed by EnCana … assigning 100 percent of the record title interest … to ConocoPhillips.”
The leases Shell purchased from EnCana were from MMS lease sale 186 held in September 2003; the tracts picked up by ConocoPhillips were also issued from sale 186, MMS said.
Editor’s note: The full version of this story will appear in the Oct. 23 edition of Petroleum News, available on-line this coming Friday.
