North Slope, Beaufort Sea sales bring in $28.1 million
The Alaska Division of Oil and Gas received $28.1 million in apparent high bids in its areawide Beaufort Sea and North Slope oil and gas sales. Bids were opened in Anchorage this morning.
Division Director Chantal Walsh said after the sale that the North Slope sale was the third largest since 1998 when areawide sales began. And the average bid per acre, $121, was the highest since 1998, she said.
A new bidder, Lagniappe AK LLC, was the high bidder on 120 tracts, the division said, bidding a total of $14.1 million, an average of more than $72 per acre for 195,200 acres, a large block south of Badami.
Repsol E&P, a partner at Pikka, bid $13.1 million on some 26,560 acres, $492 per acre, on tracts primarily east of Pikka.
Oil Search dominated the Beaufort Sea sale, taking five of eight tracts in that sale for $529,368 of the $848,198 bid in that sale.
- KRISTEN NELSON
Lagniappe connected to Armstrong???
Lagniappe AK Holdings is based in Lafayette, Louisiana, and has an associated office in Centennial, Colorado.
When PN asked Armstrong Oil & Gas founder and top executive Bill Armstrong if he was behind the huge North Slope lease acquisition, he said "no comment." If Armstrong is behind Lagniappe's bids it wouldn't be the first time he's used a different company name and agent for a major lease transaction.
The principal in charge of the firm at the address on Lagniappe's Alaska business license is attorney Durelle Allen of Allen & Kirmse Ltd., who politely declined to comment on the lease sale at this time when asked if he represented a major investor or a group of investors.
The individuals who gave Allen & Kirmse glowing recommendations in everything from land services to brokering deals included Armstrong Vice President and minority owner Ed Kerr, who said their "technical expertise was the very best … while their diligence and timeliness allowed us to maintain a competitive edge on our competition. Over the past 32 years," Kerr said he has worked with Allen & Kirmse "in 12 different states as well as the Beaufort Sea."
- KAY CASHMAN
See stories in Nov. 25 issue of Petroleum News, available online Friday, Nov. 23 at www.petroleumnews.com
For information on PN's news bulletin service, call 907-522-9469. PO Box 231651, Anchorage, AK 99523 - 1651
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