Buccaneer transfers offshore leases

State also approves lease deals for Repsol and partners on the North Slope and various small transactions across the state

Eric Lidji

For Petroleum News

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources approved a transfer of a 50 percent working interest and some 39 percent royalty interest in two Buccaneer Alaska LLC leases — ADL 391108 and ADL 391789 — to Hilcorp Alaska LLC in March.

The leases were formerly part of the offshore Southern Cross unit, which Buccaneer voluntarily terminated earlier this year along with its offshore Northwest Cook Inlet unit.

Hilcorp already owned the other half of the two leases.

The majority of the leases at those units have now expired retroactively.

The state is also considering requests from Buccaneer Royalties LLC and from Stellar Oil and Gas LLC to transfer small royalty interest those same remaining leases to Hilcorp.

The state denied a request by Buccaneer Cosmopolitan LLC to transfer small royalty interests in four leases to Buccaneer Royalties LLC and Stellar Oil and Gas LLC. After operating the Cosmopolitan prospect and drilling an exploration well, Buccaneer recently sold its 25 percent working interest in the leases to its majority partner BlueCrest Energy Inc. The leases are ADL 391899, ADL 391902, ADL 391903 and ADL 391904.

Also in March, the state finalized the second revision of the Qannik participating area, involving segments of six leases from the ConocoPhillips-operated Colville River unit.

The state approved a request from Repsol E&P USA Inc. to transfer 7.5 percent working interest and 6.25 percent royalty interest in some 50 Beaufort Sea leases to GMT Exploration Co. LLC. The state also approved a request from 70 & 148 LLC to transfer 7.5 percent working interest and 6.25 percent royalty interest in 16 leases to GMT Exploration Co. and a 70 percent working interest and 58.33 percent royalty interest in 16 leases to Repsol E&P USA. The three companies are partners on an exploration program.

The state is considering a request from William Armstrong to transfer a 0.025 percent royalty interest in 160 North Slope leases to Colorado-based Reed Ligc LLC.

The state also extended two Repsol leases — ADL 391441 and ADL 391428 — until May 31, 2018. The onshore leases are south of the Prudhoe Bay unit, in the vicinity of the Repsol Tuttu No. 1 exploration well. The leases were set to expire on May 31.

The state is considering a request from Black Stone Natural Resources I LP to transfer small royalty interests in four North Slope leases to Matagorda B1 LP and Black Stone Minerals Co. LP. The leases are ADL 47433, ADL 47437, ADL 47438 and ADL 47466.

The state is also considering a request from the Estate of W.G. Stroecker to transfer small royalty interests — all less than 1 percent — in eight leases to Stroecker Oil and Gas LLC. The leases are ADL 364470 and ADL 364471 at the Colville River unit, ADL 379301 at the Oooguruk unit, ADL 355016 at the Milne Point unit, on the North Slope, and ADL 359111 and ADL 359112 at the West McArthur River unit in Cook Inlet.

The state is considering various requests from the Estate of John W. Peery, the Estate of Robert S. Searls Jr. and the Estate of Jeanne Alice Searls to transfer a small royalty interest in ADL 51667 in the Point Thomson unit to various individual royalty owners.

The Aurora Gas lease ADL 391265 also expired in March, retroactive to October 2013. The lease had surrounded the Nicolai Creek unit on the west side of Cook Inlet. The state had extended the term of the lease when Aurora drilled by the Nicolai Creek No. 5 well.

—A copyrighted oil and gas lease map from Mapmakers Alaska was a research tool used in preparing this story.