Storm Cat sees coalbed methane promise in Cook Inlet area

Kristen Nelson

Calgary-based Storm Cat Energy Corp. commented Nov. 18 on the leases it took in the Alaska Mental Health Trust Land Office lease sale Nov. 9. (See previous two stories on Storm Cat and the lease sale in the Nov. 14 edition of Petroleum News available online at www.PetroleumNews.com)

Storm Cat said it considered the leases “prospective for both coalbed natural gas as well as conventional natural gas.”

“This lease acquisition is in keeping with Storm Cat’s objective, to acquire prospective leaseholds where significant value can be added in the development of natural gas resources. The Mat-Su Valley area, north of Anchorage is one of the fastest growing areas in Alaska and one which will greatly benefit if commercial gas resources are developed,” Scott Zimmerman, president of Storm Cat, said in a statement.

Storm Cat said it acquired 18,369 acres in two leases for US$203,901, about US$11.10 per acre. That dollar total matches the numbers read when the bids were opened and that was reported in the Nov. 14 issue of Petroleum News. But preliminary results posted by the Trust Land Office Nov. 17 show a total for Storm Cat of $130,783.01 for tract 29 (5,970.28 acres) and tract 30 (5,811.973 acres), some 11,783 acres, at $11.10 an acre.

The difference in the Storm Cat bids drops the total in apparent high winning bids at the sale to $694,913.93, from the $768,042.24 reported after the bids were read, and makes Storm Cat the third-highest bidder at the sale after Forest Oil ($247,415.05) and Clyde T. Boyer ($186,276.59).

Zimmerman was formerly vice president of operations and engineering for Denver-based Evergreen Resources Inc., which has been working a coalbed methane prospect in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough north of Anchorage.

Evergreen has been acquired by Pioneer Natural Resources. Pioneer’s Pioneer unit is adjacent to the leases acquired by Storm Cat.