Union Energy not new to Alaska

Union Energy (Alaska) LLC isn’t new to Alaska.

At the North Slope sale back in October 2007, the company spent $449,971.20 on three leases covering 14,807 acres east of the Haul Road and west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the former Kavik unit.

Those leases have not yet been issued.

The company listed James Fitzsimmons as its general manager. Fitzsimons has a background and contact information in Switzerland and experience in the Oklahoma oil industry.

That foreign status had led the state to reject high bids from Union Energy in a 2006 Cook Inlet sale because the company submitted a check drawn from a foreign bank account, a violation of state regulations.

In September 2007, Fitzsimons entered into several oil and gas farm out agreements with GD Conference Center, Inc. for acreage in Oklahoma. As part of the agreement, Fitzsimons became a director and majority owner of GD Conference Center, and the company agreed to drill test wells by the end of 2008.

GD Conference Center began as a development company created to provide telephone conferencing services, but changed its name to Petrocorp Inc. in October 2007 and became an oil and gas company.

In December 2007, Union Energy turned over its working interest in these leases, as well as the responsibility for the remainder owed to the state, to Petrocorp. As of the end of 2007, Fitzsimons was listed as the president and chief executive officer of Petrocorp.

—Eric Lidji