Lease report: Jade Energy promises to pursue drilling
ExxonMobil assigns 63 percent interest in Point Thomson lease along ANWR border to independent run by Eric Opstad, Greg Vigil Kay Cashman Petroleum News
This report covers state of Alaska-approved November and December lease assignments by leaseholders to other companies and individuals.
There were two major lease deals between oil and gas entities in November, the largest being BP’s transfer of its 39.2 percent interest in the Greater Kuparuk area to operator ConocoPhillips, as reported in the Nov. 18 issue of Petroleum News; the other being a Point Thomson unit lease that was transferred by operator ExxonMobil Production to Jade Energy LLC.
The lease, ADL 343112, contains the Sourdough 2 and 3 wells (both under state confidentiality protection) and is the most southeasterly Point Thomson unit lease, bordering the 1002 area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The 1002 area is a narrow strip of ANWR coastline that was set aside for potential development by Congress because of its hydrocarbon-rich geology.
Sourdough, a prospect discovered by BP on state land just outside the border of ANWR in 1997, is estimated to hold 100 million barrels of recoverable oil.
Exxon assigned Jade a 62.674 percent working interest in the lease, retaining a 2 percent overriding royalty interest.
Jade Energy LLC formed January 2018 The assignment will create a new segment from the surface on the southern portion of the lease. In its explanation for requesting the divided interest assignment, Jade told the Division of Oil and Gas it will “pursue drilling operations on the newly-created segment, as part of a farm-out agreement” with Exxon, division Director Chantal Walsh wrote in her Nov. 13 approval letter, noting Jade will also become a party to the Point Thomson Unit Agreement.
Jade Energy LLC was formed in Alaska in January 2018. According to state Division of Corporations filings, Jade’s members and managers are Anchorage-based Eric Opstad and Castle Rock, Colorado-based Greg Vigil, who each own 50 percent of the firm.
Lease assignments, all effective Dec. 1 * On Dec. 11, Douglas A. Barr’s assignment to Samuel Cade of a 75 percent working interest and a 62.5 royalty interest in two leases, Beaufort Sea ADL 393578 and North Slope ADL 393687, was approved.
* On Dec. 18, Petro-Hunt LLC’s assignment to ConocoPhillips of a 38 percent working interest and a 0.110832 royalty interest in two North Slope Colville River unit leases, ADL 384215 and ADL 389725, was approved.
* On Dec. 18, ConocoPhillips’ assignment to ExxonMobil of a 0.3648 percent working interest and a 0.3040 royalty interest in six North Slope leases, ADL 393667, ADL 393668, ADL 393669, ADL 393670, ADL 393671, and ADL 393672, was approved.
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