State receives 262 shallow gas applications from 36 applicants
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas began accepting applications for shallow gas leases Feb. 29 and received 262 applications from 36 applicants. Leases are on a first-come, first-served basis.
Pirtle Bates, a natural resources officer with the division, said March 3 that the first leases should be issued in four to six months. The leases will be for three-year terms, with extensions of one year at the discretion of the director, and at rentals of 50 cents per acre for the life of the lease, he said.
The division drew numbers from a hat Feb. 29 to rank applicants, all of whose applications were deemed to have been received simultaneously if received by 8:30 a.m. that day. Where applicants have applied for the same areas, leases will be determined by the applicant's rank in the drawing.
Among Feb. 29 applicants were: Dave Lappi and his company, Lapp Resources Inc. (Lappi began the first coalbed gas development in Alaska at Houston, a project now up for sale by Lappi's former partners); Ray Latchem and his company, Northern Eclipse LLC, currently providing LNG to Fairbanks from a Cook Inlet plant; NANA Development Corp. and Cominco Alaska Inc., partners in the Red Dog mine near Kotzebue -- a major energy user; Ocean Energy Resources Inc., operator of the Ocean Energy-Unocal coalbed Pioneer project in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough; and Evergreen Resources Inc. out of Denver, a company with extensive coalbed methane developments in the Lower 48.
BP ANS term price up 7.7 percent
BP Amoco's March Alaska North Slope term price is $27.69 a barrel, up $1.97 a barrel, 7.66 percent, from $25.72 a barrel for February. This is the highest BP's ANS term price has been since December 1990, when it stood at $28.74 a barrel.
The year-to-date average ANS term price is $25.99 a barrel, compared to $10.21 a barrel for the comparable period in 1999 and $14.84 a barrel for the comparable period in 1998. The March 1999 ANS term price was $10.47 a barrel.
February ANS production up slightly
Alaska North Slope liquid production averaged 1.063 million barrels a day in February, up 0.4 percent from a February average of 1.059 million barrels a day, with increases in production at Endicott, Milne Point and Kuparuk and decreases in production at Prudhoe Bay and Lisburne.
Endicott production (including Eider) had the largest per barrel and percent change from January to February, averaging 42,855 barrels a day in February, up 13.52 percent (5,105 barrels) from an average of 37,750 barrels a day in January.
Production at Milne Point increased 3.3 percent, averaging 53,075 barrels a day in February, up 1,687 barrels a day from January production of 51,388 barrels a day.
Kuparuk River production (including Tarn and Tabasco) averaged 250,980 barrels a month for February, up 1.1 percent (2,640 barrels a day) from a January average of 248,340 barrels a month.
Production at the Lisburne production center (Lisburne, Point McIntyre, Niakuk) averaged 110,451 barrels a day in February, down 1.7 percent (1,935 barrels) from 112,386 barrels a day in January.
Production at Prudhoe Bay averaged 605,381 barrels a day in February, down 0.6 percent (3,685 barrels) from a January average of 609,066 barrels a day.
Prudhoe Bay natural gas liquids averaged 58,270 barrels a day in February, down 2 percent from January's 59,400 barrels a day average.
Cook Inlet production was up 1.2 percent in February, averaging 29,809 barrels, an increase in 355 barrels from the January average of 29,454 barrels a day.
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