Tract contracted out of Cosmopolitan

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas has approved the contraction of a tract out of the BlueCrest Energy-operated Cosmopolitan unit. The unit is offshore in state waters adjacent to the southern Kenai Peninsula north of Anchor Point. Crude oil is produced from an onshore drill site.

The tract which BlueCrest relinquished, the 1,109-acre lease ADL 391902, was the most northerly tract in the unit. The lease was acquired by Apache Corp. in the state’s June 2011 areawide Cook Inlet sale, and was one of three tracts, the “B” portion of the sale, offered as a block with a minimum bid of $50 per acre and a requirement for an exploration plan within six months of receipt of the leases. Apache’s bid was $70 per acre for the leases, which were offered in this way because they were part of a known oil accumulation - discovered by Pennzoil in 1967, and part of the Cosmopolitan unit formed by ConocoPhillips in 2001. Pioneer Natural Resources took over the unit in in 2005, and held it until 2011. Buccaneer and BlueCrest acquired Cosmopolitan in early 2012, and BlueCrest took over as 100 percent owner in early 2014 and has been producing from an onshore pad since early 2016.

A Sept. 11 letter to BlueCrest from division Director Chantal Walsh said BlueCrest notified the division Aug. 31 that it was relinquishing the lease and proposing a contraction to the unit.

- KRISTEN NELSON