HOME PAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS, Print Editions, Newsletter PRODUCTS READ THE PETROLEUM NEWS ARCHIVE! ADVERTISING INFORMATION EVENTS PETROLEUM NEWS BAKKEN MINING NEWS

Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
October 2010

Vol. 15, No. 43 Week of October 24, 2010

Unocal gives up more White Hills leases

Company drops three leases and sells five to Armstrong subsidiary 70 & 148 LLC; move follows decision to sell Cook Inlet assets

Eric Lidji

For Petroleum News

Union Oil Co. of California further reduced its holdings in the White Hills area in September, according to reports from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.

The company, an affiliate of Chevron, relinquished three leases totaling 16,890 acres in the oil and natural gas play in the central North Slope, south of the Kuparuk River unit.

Unocal also sold five leases totaling 28,694 acres in the White Hills area to 70 & 148 LLC, the North Slope subsidiary of Denver-based independent Armstrong Oil and Gas.

Most of the leases expire in January or August 2012, with one expiring in August 2014.

In recent months, 70 & 148 has built a large land position near White Hills.

The three relinquished leases each include a proposed drilling location or an actual well site: ARCO’s Toolik Federal No. 3 well, Unocal’s Bluebuck 6-7-9 well drilled in early 2009 and Unocal’s proposed Moropus 16-6-8 well site. The five sold leases include four well sites: Texaco’s Wolfbutton 32-7-8 well, Unocal’s Muskoxen 36-7-8 well drilled in 2009, BP Exploration’s Narvaq No. 1 well and Chevron’s Ruby State No. 1 well.

The results from Bluebuck and Muskoxen won’t become public until 2011.

Unocal retained four leases in the White Hills area. Those leases include one proposed well location, Unocal’s Diniotis 28-9-9 well, but no actual drill sites.

Chevron operated the White Hills exploration program and holds a 70 percent interest in the leases. A subsidiary of the French major Total holds the remaining 30 percent.

Future uncertain for Chevron

Chevron took on White Hills after acquiring Unocal in 2005. The two-year program marked the first North Slope exploration program for the major since the 1990s. Now, though, Chevron’s future as an explorer and operator in Alaska is uncertain following the company’s Oct. 12 announcement that it plans to sell all of its assets in Cook Inlet (see story in Oct. 17 issue).

Together, Chevron and Unocal still hold more than 176,000 acres of state leases in Alaska, including small stakes in the Prudhoe Bay, Kuparuk River and Endicott units and a larger stake in some of the leases at Point Thomson, as well as a minor stake in the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.

Most of the state acreage is in the Cook Inlet area and is included in the sale package.

A copyrighted oil and gas lease map from Mapmakers Alaska (www.mapmakersalaska.com/) was a research tool used in preparing this story.






Petroleum News - Phone: 1-907 522-9469 - Fax: 1-907 522-9583
[email protected] --- http://www.petroleumnews.com ---
S U B S C R I B E

Copyright Petroleum Newspapers of Alaska, LLC (Petroleum News)(PNA)©2013 All rights reserved. The content of this article and web site may not be copied, replaced, distributed, published, displayed or transferred in any form or by any means except with the prior written permission of Petroleum Newspapers of Alaska, LLC (Petroleum News)(PNA). Copyright infringement is a violation of federal law subject to criminal and civil penalties.