|
State issues May 2014 Cook Inlet leases
Eric Lidji For Petroleum News
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources has issued leases from its May 2014 lease sale in the Cook Inlet region, according to a February 2015 lease report from the state.
The state issued 12 leases to Hilcorp Alaska LLC, seven to Apache Alaska Corp., four to Nordaq Energy Inc., two to Woodstone Resources LLC and one to W.J. Kennedy.
Cook Inlet Energy LLC and Pacific West Energy Inc. each forfeited tracts they had acquired in the May 2014 lease sale, which is uncommon although not unprecedented.
Cook Inlet Energy forfeited four leases near its Redoubt unit. The Alaska subsidiary of Tennessee-based Miller Energy Resources Ltd. forfeited ADL 392643 at the southwest corner of the unit and ADL 392644, ADL 392649 and ADL 392650 just to the west, at the mouth of Big River. ADL 392649 included Socal’s Kustatan River Unit 43-30 well.
Cook Inlet Energy had acquired the four state leases for $763,315.20.
The China-based Pacific West Energy forfeited two leases east of Kenai, ADL 392640 and ADL 392641. The irregular leases were surrounded by Hilcorp and Apache leases.
Buccaneer leases expire Also in February, three Buccaneer Alaska LLC leases in Cook Inlet expired.
The three leases were in the vicinity of the Kenai Loop field, which Buccaneer had operated before selling its assets to AIX Energy LLC in a bankruptcy sale.
All drilling and production at Kenai Loop has been limited to a nearby Alaska Mental Health Trust lease. Buccaneer had previously made an unsuccessful attempt to include nearby state and Cook Inlet Region Inc. leases into a unit. Current and former Buccaneer leases in the Kenai Loop area have been subject to an ongoing correlative rights dispute.
Buccaneer also surrendered four leases associated with its West Eagle unit.
In late 2012, Buccaneer requested a 46,395-acre unit over nine leases. The state ultimately approved an 8,843-acre unit over three leases. The others mostly expired.
Buccaneer drilled the West Eagle No. 1 well in early 2014. The well was a dry hole, which added momentum to the financial problems that triggered the bankruptcy filing.
The company surrendered the three leases in the unit — ADL 391144, ADL 391145 and ADL 391625 — as well as an un-unitized lease along the southern border, ADL 392389.
—A copyrighted oil and gas lease map from Mapmakers Alaska was a research tool used in preparing this story.
| 