NWT Aboriginal groups would own one-third of Mackenzie gas pipeline
Phillips and Anadarko announce five discovery wells in NPR-A - 05/21/2001
NEWS BULLETIN
| May 21, 2001 --- Vol. 7, No. 60 | May 2001
|
Phillips and Anadarko announce five discovery wells in NPR-A
BLM planning for second NPR-A lease sale in 2002, NW portion in 2004
Pioneer Natural Resources said today that its Alaska subsidiary has signed an agreement with ConocoPhillips Alaska to acquire up to 50 percent working interest and potentially assume operatorship of the Cosmopolitan unit in Cook Inlet offshore the lower Kenai Peninsula.
Three wells and a sidetrack have been drilled in the unit, Pioneer said, “establishing a significant oil column.” A 3-D seismic survey will be shot later this year to refine the estimate of recoverable reserves.
Pioneer acquired a 10 percent working interest in the unit from ConocoPhillips earlier this year, along with “the option to acquire up to an additional 40 percent working interest and possibly succeed ConocoPhillips as operator of the unit after the new 3-D seismic data has been acquired and interpreted,” Pioneer said in an Aug. 1 press release. Pioneer said it would pay “a disproportionate share of the seismic acquisition and processing in exchange for the 10 percent working interest and option.” The new 3-D survey is expected to be completed this November.
Pioneer said the option gives it the right to acquire up to an additional 40 percent working interest and potentially become the unit operator “by paying cash or a disproportionate share of ConocoPhillips’ future costs.”
|
Print this story
Petroleum News - Phone: 1-907 522-9469
[email protected] --- https://www.PetroleumNews.com
S U B S C R I B E
CLICK BELOW FOR A MESSAGE FROM OUR ADVERTISERS.
|
Assessment board sets $3.017 billion rate for trans-Alaska pipeline system
For the first time the state's property tax assessment of the trans-Alaska pipeline system was appealed to the State Assessment Review Board, which in a May 24 decision set aside the Department of Revenue Tax Division's 'reconciled' assessment of $2.75 billion in favor of the $3.017 billion number from the state's income model.
The assessment was appealed by the municipalities — the City of Valdez, the Fairbanks North Star Borough and the North Slope Borough. The Tax Division reconciled the $3.017 billion number from its own trans-Alaska pipeline system settlement agreement methodology, TSM, model, with appraisals done for the municipalities (a valuation of at least $2.9 billion) and for the owners (a valuation of $2.1 billion) to reach the assessment value of $2.75 billion. The review board said the state's reconciliation was not justified, and set the assessment at the state's original number of $3.017 billion.
The board said state statute allows the board to adjust the division's assessed valuation only if evidence in the record shows the valuation is unequal, excessive, improper or otherwise contrary standards set out in statute. The board said that after reviewing the record, it concluded that "the evidence clearly shows that reducing the Division's original valuation of $3.017 billion to $2.75 billion resulted in an assessed value that is improper."
The board said most of the differences in the parties' valuations were attributable to capitalization rate, post-TSM tariff rates (the settlement runs only through 2011), future production through-put projections and dismantlement, removal and restoration costs, DR&R. It found the division's TSM model income approach produced "the most reliable valuation."
The board said it disagreed with the division's reconciliation which lowered the assessment to $2.75 billion because the division failed "to clearly articulate" what measures it selected from the other appraisals to justify a lower valuation and because the board was concerned that the division "may have unconsciously given too much weight to an expectation that its 'reconciled' valuation should follow the graphed line of historically decreasing assessments arrived at through negotiated settlements in recent years." The board said the graph line of decreasing assessments "is not an indicator of value that would justify a reduction in the valuation of the TAPS arrived at through the TSM model."
|
