Anadarko acreage nearing onshore limit

Petroleum News Alaska staff, Houston office

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. is a hair away from exceeding the limit on “chargeable” onshore acreage, but said it’s monitoring the situation.

A spokesman for the company at the North American Prospectors Expo in Houston in late January said the big independent’s exploration position in Alaska now stands at about 490,000 acres, just 10,000 acres shy of the 500,000-acre state limit.

To avoid busting the acreage cap, Anadarko recently gave up rights to 26,012 acres (five tracts) it won in last year’s North Slope Foothills Areawide Lease Sale.

“The 500,000 acres allows the opportunity to explore onshore Alaska, but it also gives us an additional incentive to ensure we have the highest quality acreage for our portfolio,” the company spokesman said.

He would not say whether Anadarko intends to participate in the upcoming Foothills sale in May, but did say the company is looking for additional partners for some of its existing North Slope acreage, particularly in the Foothills region.

Taking on partners would help reduce Anadarko’s interest in onshore acreage while spreading financial risk.