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Paspalof to head Pacific Energy in Alaska
By Kay Cashman Petroleum News
Pacific Energy Resources Ltd. has named George Paspalof to head its Alaska operations, company president Darren Katic told Petroleum News Oct. 31.
The Long Beach, Calif. independent has played its cards close to the vest since it closed on Forest Oil’s Southcentral Alaska assets in August.
According to www.zoominfo.com, from May 1988 through January of 1994, Paspalof was the L.A. basin field engineer for Texaco E&P, where he was in charge of ongoing operations in the Long Beach, Richfield, Aliso Canyon, Inglewood and Seal Beach oil fields that, combined, produced about 6,000 barrels of oil and 3 million cubic feet of gas per day from 200 wells. Paspalof’s duties included management of field operations personnel, strategic budget planning, coordination with local and state entities, and long-term reservoir management.
Paspalof reportedly has extensive experience in implementing waterflood optimization programs.
Before going to work for Pacific Energy, from 1994 to April 2001, he was the president of Global Solutions Inc.
Buying a jack-up? Pacific Energy Chief Financial Officer Jerett Creed told Petroleum News Aug. 30 that the company planned to move ahead with exploration of the Cook Inlet acreage it acquired from Forest.
Creed said the company wanted to use a jack-up rig to explore its offshore prospects, which include Corsair — on the same geologic trend as the North Cook Inlet, Kenai and Cannery Loop gas fields. He said Pacific Energy was engaged in discussions with other companies interested in bringing a jack-up to the Inlet, and with drilling companies.
In May, Katic said Corsair “alone has 200 million-barrel potential, provides large exploration upside … (and) was a high-priority” drilling prospect for his company. (In 2003 Forest said the prospect could also contain as much as 480 billion cubic feet of natural gas.)
Petroleum News sources say Pacific Energy is looking at buying a jack-up rig from Rowan, which has three jack-ups for sale that would work in Cook Inlet.
That information coincided with an Oct. 19 announcement by Pacific Energy that it had closed an equity private placement in the amount of US $65.5 million.
“The initial US$40 million of the private placement proceeds will be used to repay a portion of the debt associated with the acquisition of the offshore producing Alaskan assets of Forest Oil … with the balance of funds to be used for development of offshore Alaska and California properties and for general working capital and business purposes,” the company said in a press release.
When the companies first announced the sale in May 2007, Pacific Energy said it was producing about 3,000 barrels of oil per day in California, two-thirds of which came from three offshore platforms in the federal waters of San Pedro Bay, and that Forest was producing about 5,900 barrels of oil equivalent per day in Alaska.
Pacific Energy reported total revenues of $8.9 million for 2006 and approximately $157 million in total assets.
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