THE EXPLORERS 2007: Gas giant BG strong partner

Kay Cashman

Petroleum News

London-based BG Group, one of the world’s largest natural gas companies, entered Alaska in January 2006, with a Brooks Range Foothills joint venture agreement with Anadarko Petroleum and Petro-Canada.

The Foothills deal gave BG Group’s new Alaska subsidiary BG Alaska E&P Inc. a one-third share in the oil and gas rights on some 2.2 million acres between the Canning and Colville rivers along the southern border of the North Slope.

In September 2007, JV operator Anadarko said the partners would drill two wells on two gas-prone Foothills prospects in the winter exploration season of 2007-08 — the first commercial wells targeting gas to be drilled in northern Alaska (see story on page 88).

Other investments followed, including a 40 percent share of 208,000 acres on the eastern North Slope, including a piece of an oil prospect called Jacob’s Ladder.

“BG Group is focused on growing its presence in Alaska as part of our long-term plan to meet the increasing U.S. energy demand through the production of new natural gas supplies from Alaska and Canada,” BG Group’s Executive Vice President Martin Houston said in May 2006.

BG also began bidding in Alaska lease sales with Anadarko and Petro-Canada in 2006.

By July 2007 the company had interest in over 3.1 million gross acres in the eastern North Slope and Foothills partnerships.

BG, which supplied half the liquefied natural gas imported to the United States in 2006, supported Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s 2007 Alaska Gas line Inducement Act.

A company executive told an Anchorage audience in October 2007 that exporting LNG from Alaska would be an effective way to monetize the state’s North Slope resource.

“LNG, I believe, is an industry that holds the key to the future evolution of gas markets worldwide and I believe that Alaska can be a critical part of that world market,” said David Keane, vice president policy and corporate affairs, BG North America, Caribbean and Global LNG.

Glenn McNamara, president of Calgary-based BG Canada Exploration and Production, manages BG’s Alaska subsidiary.