New entrant to the Alaska oil and gas industry

Babcock & Brown Energy, the company that will operate a new exploration well in the Nenana Basin in the summer of 2009, is a privately owned oil and gas exploration and production company with interests in Colorado, Wyoming, Illinois and Michigan, company Vice President Jim Dodson told Petroleum News Nov. 19. Dodson said that the company currently operates oil and gas production but he declined to give any details about the company’s size or its Lower 48 operations.

Babcock & Brown Energy started out in 1990 as Duncan Energy, a company owned by Babcock & Brown Ltd., a major Australian power generation firm, and by Nomura Securities of Japan, Dodson said. In 2000 Duncan Energy ended its association with Nomura and changed its name to Babcock & Brown Energy. Around 2004 Babcock & Brown Energy became completely independent from the Australian Babcock & Brown company, Dodson said.

Dodson said that Babcock & Brown Energy’s interest in the Nenana Basin reflects a recognition of the need for natural gas to supply local Alaska markets.

“We see a need for natural gas in central Alaska and Southcentral Alaska that doesn’t look like it will be met in the near term by any North Slope supplies,” Dodson said. “So we’re really trying to step in and find a local source of gas.”

Dodson was previously vice president of Andex Resources, the company that in 2002 purchased the Nenana state exploration license that the Nenana exploration partners now hold.

—Alan Bailey