BP transfers Badami leases to Savant, ASRC

BP has transferred four Badami leases to Savant Alaska and ASRC Exploration, the independent and its partner that brought the eastern North Slope unit back online.

BP transferred 67.5 percent working interest in the leases to Savant Alaska, the Denver-based company that led the development effort, and 32.5 percent to ASRC Exploration, the subsidiary of Arctic Slope Regional Corp., the Alaska Native corporation.

BP retained a 4 percent overriding royalty interest on the four leases.

The four leases cover some 14,629 acres at the center of the 26,140-acre 10-lease unit, and overlay the location of most of the wells drilled in the onshore-offshore unit.

BP brought the Badami unit online in 1998, but poor performance led to numerous shutdowns in the decade that followed. In late 2008, Savant and ASRC signed a deal with BP to drill two wells at the unit, an exploration well and new horizontal sidetrack to improve production at a known reservoir. The unit went back online in November 2010.

The four leases are ADL 367011, ADL 367006, ADL 365533 and ADL 377011.

Badami produced 34,649 barrels in November; prior to the November restart the field had produced 5.2 million barrels.

—Eric Lidji