BP Exploration (Alaska) has sold three of the 12 North Slope exploration acreage bundles it put up for sale in January and closed May 6. The three packages represent nearly half the 405,000 acres BP had for sale outside of its North Slope producing acreage.
“The winning bids were for leases and data in the Colville, North Milne and Southeast Prudhoe areas,” BP spokesman Daren Beaudo told Petroleum News today.
The successful bidders names were not released, he said, because “commercial arrangements have not been finalized.”
Beaudo said 222,959 acres will be “relinquished back to the state of Alaska for re-apportionment or, in some, cases, may be assumed by partners who have preferential rights.”
The packages sold included “land, data and intellectual property … as well as 2D and 3D seismic data and well data, including core. … BP’s purpose in the sale was to spur and accelerate new investment and production on the North Slope by other companies, including independents,” he said.
Some bids “did not qualify for consideration, as they did not conform to the bidding guidelines,” Beaudo said.
“The ultimate prize for the effort was to increase exploration activity on the North Slope. BP is happy with the outcome since the offering generated a lot of interest as gauged by the number of companies receiving data, the quantity of data distributed and meetings conducted,” he said.
In April, the company confirmed it had sold 594,900 net exploration acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and the Brooks Range Foothills to Anadarko Petroleum. (See May 4 Petroleum News article.)
Editor’s note: See full story in the June 29 edition of Petroleum News.
