Fox buys Donkel North Slope leases

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

London-based Fox Petroleum Inc. said July 12 that it has signed an agreement to purchase exploration rights to some 32,000 acres on Alaska’s North Slope.

The acreage consists of 12 State of Alaska oil and gas leases. Eleven are currently held by Samuel H. Cade (75 percent) and Daniel K. Donkel (25 percent). The lease for the twelfth tract, from last October’s North Slope areawide lease sale, has not yet been issued, but Cade (75 percent) and Donkel (25 percent) were high bidders on the tract.

Fox said it will issue 20,000 restricted shares in exchange for the lease rights.

Eleven of the tracts are east and southeast of the Prudhoe Bay unit and south of the Duck Island unit. A single tract is farther south, west of the trans-Alaska pipeline.

Fox said in a statement that once it completes the acquisition it “intends to conduct a technical work program using the existing surface and subsurface data in the region to facilitate a better understanding of its hydrocarbon potential.”

“The proximity of our site to major oil and gas players, fields and current infrastructure, combined with the site analog wells and the resurgence of interest in Alaska by several of the majors, gives us confidence in the potential of this lease acreage,” said Richard Bullock in a statement.

“We intend to identify and drill several exploration-type wells soon after our initial G&G program is completed. This will allow us to identify the best prospects available,” said Bullock, the newly appointed chairman of Fox Petroleum.

Fox is an oil and gas exploration company headquartered in London. In addition to the Alaska acreage, the company said it has the right to earn-in to a 33.3 percent ownership stake in a 37,000-plus-acre UK North Sea block.