|
The Oil Patch Insider Pioneer plans to open permanent Alaska office; lease buyback possible
Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska said Nov. 19 it intends to open a permanent office in Anchorage, Alaska by the middle of next year.
“With the ongoing commercialization studies related to our successful drilling program at Northwest Kuparuk last winter and our recent success at the Oct. 29, 2003, state of Alaska lease sale, Pioneer’s Alaskan portfolio is now sufficient to justify a dedicated Alaska team in Anchorage,” Chris Cheatwood, Pioneer Natural Resources executive vice president, said.
Pioneer said the Anchorage office would have approximately 12 employees; about half of them would transfer from other Pioneer locations. The company said that while it will relocate some existing Pioneer employees to Alaska, it also “intends to look for individuals will local experience and will be looking to fill some positions from within the state.”
The company said that Ken Sheffield, president of Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska, will relinquish his additional current responsibilities for Pioneer’s operations in Canada to focus on the company’s growing business within Alaska. Governor considers buyback of CBM leases Gov. Frank Murkowski has suggested he is open to the possibility of the state of Alaska buying back coalbed methane leases before companies start exploring in earnest.
Citizens at public meetings in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and Homer have pressed state officials to purchase gas leases in such sensitive areas as neighborhoods. Murkowski’s comments came Nov. 13 at a press conference in the Hotel Captain Cook in downtown Anchorage.
Asked if the buyback option could fly, the governor recalled a 1976 decision by the Legislature to buy back offshore oil and gas leases in Kachemak Bay.
“We have had a history of buying back offshore leases down in the lower Cook Inlet area, and if that’s what the people want, why that’s clearly an alternative,” Murkowski said.
The governor suggested the leasing uproar might be resolved by exploring for gas in uninhabited areas. But he also said current efforts to find methane might fizzle.
Murkowski’s comments were strictly preliminary, John Manly, the governor’s spokesman, told the Anchorage Daily News. Any buyback would require approval from the Legislature, Manly said.
Evergreen Resources Inc. holds rights to explore across 300,000 acres and has already drilled eight pilot wells. Evergreen has invested more than $15 million in Alaska, CEO Mark Sexton said Nov. 14.
Sexton said the company would cooperate with the state: “If they want to sit down and talk about this, they’ll find us a willing participant,” he said
| 