Idaho newcomer nabs Cook Inlet leases

Newcomer Duke Oil & Gas-Alaska LLC joined the bevy of small companies and investor consortiums that clamored for tracts in Alaska’s Cook Inlet areawide oil and gas lease sale May 24.

Touted by the state as its best sale since areawide leasing for Cook Inlet began in 1999, the offering drew $4.8 million in bids on 72 tracts.

Duke Oil & Gas submitted the winning bids for Tracts 216 and 218, on the west side of the inlet, offering $75,513.60 and $86,457.60 for the two onshore parcels, respectively.

An independent, Duke is based in Boise, Idaho and 100 percent owned by John Brad Duke of Star, Idaho, according to Division of Oil and Gas filings. The company hired a Juneau company to act as its agent and longtime Alaska oil patch executive and political activist Randy Ruedrich to serve as its “attorney in fact” for the lease sale.

Handwritten and barely legible, Duke’s bid sheet gave state Oil and Gas Acting Director Bill Van Dyke some consternation when he had difficulty reading it at bid opening proceedings May 24, said Patrick Galvin, the division’s leasing manager.

“Duke Oil & Gas is a new company just put together,’ Ruedrich said June 7, before declining further comment.

Tracts 216 and 218 are located about 12 miles north of the Drift River Terminal near Bachatna Creek. Tract 216, in fact, has the Union-Bachatna Creek well on its border, a penetration drilled years ago presumably by Union Oil Co. of California, according to Matt Rader, a permitting specialist for the Division of Oil and Gas.

The parcels also appear to be close to the 20-inch diameter Cook Inlet Pipeline, which is a good sign because any oil discovered there would be close to infrastructure, Rader said.

“The closest production is the West McArthur River and Redoubt Shoal oil fields which are about 24 miles to the northeast,” Rader added.

—Rose Ragsdale