The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority received an application on Nov. 8 to issue a $60 million bond that would allow a company to acquire a jack-up rig for use in the waters of Cook Inlet. But the applicant remains a bit of a mystery.

A company called Kenai Offshore Ventures LLC requested the bond.

Currently, Kenai Offshore Ventures is not listed in the state corporation’s database and is not among the businesses qualified by the Division of Oil and Gas.

The most likely company behind Kenai Offshore Ventures is Buccaneer Alaska. The local subsidiary of the Australian independent recently told Petroleum News that it planned to file an application to use Recovery Zone Facility Bonds to get a jack-up rig.

However, Kenai Offshore Ventures could also be a subsidiary of another company with offshore acreage in the Cook Inlet, a consortium, a third party or something else entirely.

Other companies with offshore acreage in the Cook Inlet include Escopeta Oil, which has been trying to bring a jack-up rig to Alaska for nearly a decade, newcomer independents Cook Inlet Energy and Apache, majors like ConocoPhillips, Marathon and Chevron (which recently announced plans to sell its Cook Inlet assets) and the large independent Pioneer Natural Resources, which plans to drill its offshore acreage from an onshore pad.

See story in Nov. 14 issue, available to subscribers online at noon, Friday, Nov. 12, at www.PetroleumNews.com