The state Division of Oil and Gas received no competing proposals for all or part of the 499,200 acre Nenana basin exploration license requested by Andex Resources LLC of Houston, Jim Hansen, the division’s lease sales manager, told PNA. <p>
The state is working on a preliminary best interest finding for the Nenana basin study area, which Hansen said is the next step in the exploration license process.<p>
“We’ll probably be done with the preliminary finding in February; then we’ll go out for public comment again before we prepare our final finding,” Hansen said. “It will be about a year before we can issue the license.”<p>
Andex requested a 10-year exploration license in its application, the maximum time allowed under the law. It also included a work commitment, but those terms are confidential at this time, Hansen said.<p>
When the division issues the license, it will include the terms it wants for the license. Andex can refuse or accept the license at that time, Hansen said.<p>
Andex Executive Vice President Jim Dodson hopes to have a license no later than July. “We need it by July in order to grab a seismic crew for the next winter,” he told PNA.<p>