Foothills, Beaufort Sea leases dropped

Chevron subsidiary Union Oil Company of California has dropped 11 leases in the state’s North Slope Foothills sale area, the remnant of an acreage position acquired in 2001 and 2002 at the state’s first two Foothills areawide lease sales.

The July lease administration report from the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas also showed Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska withdrawing from a minority position in four Beaufort Sea leases.

Both Chevron and Unocal acquired tracts in the 2001 Foothills sale, with Unocal taking 18 tracts for just shy of $3 million in high bids.

Chevron U.S.A. Inc. took 17 tracts on which it bid almost $508,000. A 50-50 partnership of Chevron and Phillips Petroleum took nine tracts for some $419,000.

Union Oil Company of California also took a single tract in the 2002 areawide sale for almost $36,000.

The companies have no remaining acreage in the Foothills sale area.

The dropped acreage isn’t in the White Hills prospect where Chevron has been doing exploration drilling in the last two winters. Although White Hills is referred to as a Foothills prospect, it is in the North Slope areawide sale area.

There are 185 state oil and gas leases in the North Slope Foothills sale area, some 926,166 acres.

In the Beaufort Sea sale area, Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska withdrew from a 20 percent partnership position it acquired in 2007 in four Anadarko Petroleum leases that it acquired. Anadarko won the tracts in the 2006 areawide Beaufort Sea sale, taking six tracts for just over $290,000.

—Kristen Nelson