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Bristol Shores applies for another exploration license Company in dispute with the state of Alaska and Bristol Bay Native Corporation regarding proof of funding and data access Alan Bailey Petroleum News Staff Writer
Bristol Shores LLC, a company owned by a group of Native elders from the Bristol Bay region, has applied again for an oil and gas exploration license in the Dillingham area. The company was granted a license last year but the license lapsed because Bristol Shores did not bond the exploration commitment within the required time period, Pat Galvin, petroleum land manager for the state of Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas, told Petroleum News June 14.
The new application is for a much reduced land area of 20,153.65 acres on the east side of Nushagak Bay, south of Dillingham, Bristol Shores president George Shade told Petroleum News. Last year’s license covered about 329,000 acres. The reduction in acreage was primarily the result of advice from a consulting geologist regarding the relative oil and gas potential of some parts of the original license area, Shade said. Proof of funding Shade said that Bristol Shores has investor funding for the proposed license but that his company is in dispute with the state regarding proof of funding for the exploration commitment associated with the proposed license. Galvin said that the division requires proof of funding ability from Bristol Shores before the division will go back through the lengthy and time-consuming best interest findings process for the license, including public hearings and public notices.
Shade said that he has paid the exploration license fee but that his company’s investor information is confidential and that DOG is asking for something that he can’t legally deliver.
“They’re basically asking me to break the law,” he said. Missing well data Bristol Shores is also in dispute with Bristol Bay Native Corporation regarding some well data that Bristol Shores alleges BBNC has withheld. According to both Shade and Jere Allen, president of the company that provides management services for Bristol Shores, there are one or possibly two wells in the area south of Dillingham, between Clarks Point and Portage Creek, in or near the proposed license area.
The dispute appears to center around a visit to BBNC by Shade, Allen and a consultant petroleum geologist that Bristol Shores had hired to review geological information about the license area.
“We went there for the specific purpose of just seeing them (the well logs) to see if they were helpful,” Allen told Petroleum News.
Both Shade and Allen said that BBNC had asked Bristol Shores to pay for the well logs, although Shade and Allen understood that the well data were public.
Tiel Smith, resource manager for BBNC, told Petroleum News that BBNC knows of no wells near the proposed exploration license area and that BBNC has not withheld any well log data.
“We willingly and from the outset of oil and gas efforts shared (our data) with the state,” he said.
BBNC Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Tom Hawkins told Petroleum News that BBNC had arranged to release to the state the data from some old Phillips and Amoco wells from the Bristol Bay area. Hawkins also said that BBNC gave Bristol Shores a copy of the BBNC’s commissioned report on Bristol Bay geology.
Galvin said that the state has gone to great trouble to make well data publicly available and that the state has distributed well log data for the Bristol Bay area on CD.
“That’s been part of our efforts,” Galvin said.
Petroleum News has been unable to find any record of wells drilled in or near the proposed exploration license area. According to the state’s Bristol Bay Exploration License No. 1 issued last year “No petroleum exploratory wells have been drilled to date in the Bristol Bay/Nushagak lowlands.” Regional corporation acreage Shade also said that in applying for an exploration license last year Bristol Shores had wanted to explore some BBNC land within the perimeter of the state exploration license. That would have increased the total exploration area from 329,000 acres to 500,000 acres, Shade said. Shade cited a memorandum of understanding between BBNC and the state of Alaska as a reason for BBNC to cooperate in licensing access to its lands.
Allen said that Bristol Shores did not pursue the leasing of BBNC land because BBNC’s lease terms were “exorbitant.”
Hawkins said that BBNC has not leased any of its lands for oil and gas exploration since the 1980s but that it follows industry and state norms in its lease terms.
“We’re pretty much industry followers,” he said.
He said that BBNC looks for companies that have an established track record in oil and gas exploration when leasing its lands but that Bristol Shores had not applied for a lease. He also said that the memorandum of understanding with the state relates to data sharing and that BBNC’s policy is to lease independently from the state.
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