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Anadarko expands Canadian Arctic holdings in land swap Company trades share of Arctic Slope Regional Corp. foothills exploration license for share of AEC Oil & Gas’s Mackenzie Delta holdings Kristen Nelson PNA News Editor
An Alaska-Canada swap has expanded Anadarko Petroleum Corp.’s holdings in Canada and brought AEC Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. into a third Alaska play within a month.
Anadarko Petroleum, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Anadarko Canada Corp., said Aug. 31 that it has significantly expanded its holdings in the Mackenzie Delta basin region of Canada’s Northwest Territories with the purchase of a 37.5 percent working interest in two exploration licenses in the Mackenzie Delta region from Alberta Energy Co. Ltd. of Calgary.
The licenses cover 530,000 acres. The purchase price was not disclosed.
In a separate transaction, AEC Oil & Gas (USA) Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Alberta Energy, purchased from Anadarko a 33.33 percent working interest in Alaska North Slope acreage held under exclusive lease option by Anadarko. The lease covers 3.1 million acres under option from the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. in the foothills region south of Prudhoe Bay.
The purchase price was not disclosed. Anadarko will serve as operator, with a 66.67 percent working interest.
Anadarko growing North American markets “Increasing our Canadian holdings in the Mackenzie Delta fits our long- term strategy of providing natural gas to North American markets,” Anadarko Chairman and CEO Robert J. Allison Jr. said in a statement.
“We believe Arctic gas will find its way to Canadian and American consumers through one or more of the pipelines being proposed from Canada and Alaska. Because Anadarko also holds a significant acreage position on the Alaska North Slope, this purchase puts us in a better position to have gas available for delivery into whatever pipeline is ultimately built, whether from Alaska or Canada or both.”
Allison said Anadarko expects that Alberta Energy’s experience in the Canadian Rockies will “apply to the Foothills and complement our own expertise in Alaska.”
The 37.5 percent working interest in the Mackenzie Delta purchased by Anadarko from AEC consists of two onshore blocks adjacent to the natural gas- rich Parsons Lake Field. Alberta Energy serves as operator, with a 37.5 percent working interest in the two blocks; Gulf Canada owns the remaining 25 percent.
The purchase from AEC augments Anadarko’s other Canadian Arctic holdings. These consist of non-operated working interests ranging from 3.4 percent to 24 percent in 10 significant discovery licenses and one production license, which combined cover more than 142,000 acres. This acreage includes the Amauligak Field, the largest offshore field in the Canadian portion of the Beaufort Sea.
In another development, Anadarko Canada submitted a successful bid for an exploration license on one of the Mackenzie Delta/Beaufort Sea tracts offered in the August 14, 2000 lease sale by the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. Anadarko acquired a 100 percent working interest in Exploration License No. 407, which is centrally located in a region where 53 fields with reserves of 9 trillion cubic feet of gas and 1 billion barrels of oil already have been discovered. Exploration License No. 407 covers about 176,000 acres and is immediately northwest of the giant Taglu Field and near the AEC/Anadarko Mackenzie blocks mentioned above. AEC already partnering with Phillips, Chevron A new venture agreement between AEC Oil & Gas was announced by Phillips Alaska Inc. and Chevron U.S.A. Inc. Aug. 3. That two-part exploration alliance includes nearly 150,000 acres on Alaska’s North Slope and in the Beaufort Sea.
The Phillips-Chevron-AEC agreement covers the McCovey unit offshore Prudhoe Bay (approximately 28,504 acres) and the Grizzly Gomo prospect south of Kuparuk (approximately 114,262 acres).
AEC will earn a 33.3 percent interest at McCovey through a farm-out agreement in the initial well and will earn a 20 percent interest at Grizzly Gomo.
Phillips will operate both areas and plans a McCovey exploration well this winter subject to permitting. Prospective exploration drilling at Grizzly Gomo could occur in the 2001-02 winter season. AEC expands northern frontier gas strategy AEC Oil & Gas characterized the exchange as an expansion of its northern frontier gas strategy into Alaska.
The Alaska foothills have been under explored largely due to expectations of discovering gas, which was historically avoided due to low commodity pricing and lack of infrastructure, the company said in a statement. AEC Oil & Gas said it is evident that northern gas will play a key part in meeting future North American supply needs.
“This exchange of interests with Anadarko, combined with our recently announced world class oil exploration opportunities in northern Alaska has the potential to establish this region as a new growth platform for AEC,” Gwyn Morgan, Alberta Energy president and CEO, said in a statement.
“These basins have been recognized as having world scale resource potential with exploration opportunities that will fuel our progress toward our goal of being a global super-independent oil and gas company,” Morgan said.
Alberta Energy said government agencies have estimated undiscovered reserves for onshore Mackenzie Delta and Alaska foothills at up to 40 trillion cubic feet, and said active gas exploration programs in both areas provide the company with the potential to supply significant long-term gas volumes into the North American gas market.
Operations in both hydrocarbon regions, the company said, position it to benefit whether Canadian or Alaska gas moves to markets first.
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