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THE INDEPENDENTS 2003: Alaska puts Bristol Bay study online
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
In September the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas posted the Alaska Peninsula Oil and Gas Study on its web site for companies interested in Bristol Bay basin hydrocarbon potential.
The document consists mainly of graphic elements, including maps of the proposed Alaska Peninsula areawide oil and gas lease sale area, the exploration license study area and a geologic map of the entire area. One chart in the study outlines an exploration license timeline (see this page); another outlines the typical onshore exploration well permit process; others deal with geologic information, including an Alaska Peninsula geologic cross section.
The web site address for the 12-page document is:
(http://www.dog.dnr.state.ak.us/oil/products/slideshows/alaska_peninsula_study_slides.pdf)
Two interested in exploration licenses The division received two expressions of interest in its exploration license offering in the Bristol Bay region, Jim Hansen, the division’s leasing manager, said Aug. 28. Because of the competitive nature of the exploration license bid process, the names are not being released.
Companies had 30 days, until Aug. 25, to notify the division of intent to submit a proposal. They then had 30 days, until Sept. 23, to submit a proposal. At that point only one company submitted a proposal. (The company’s name is kept confidential until the end of the process.)
The division then went out with a public notice, which also solicits for competing proposals. Companies again had 30 days to notify the division of their intent to submit a competing proposal and another 30 days to submit the actual proposal. By the end of October two companies had notified the division that they intended to submit competing proposals.
“By the end of November we will know for sure how many applicants we have,” Hansen said.
Proposals are limited to 500,000 acres and the entire area is some 3 million acres, so the state “could get two proposals that do not overlap, in which case there could be two licenses issued,” he said.
“But the most likely scenario is that there will be overlap (in the proposals) and the division will then define the area.”
Once companies have seen the area outlined and know what mitigation measures will be required, they can then submit a final bid. Bids for exploration licenses are work commitments: the company does not pay the state up front, but commits to spend a specific amount of money to accomplish exploration work.
Extension of Bristol Bay basin The state said in its solicitation for proposals that this area is considered to be part of the onshore extension of the Bristol Bay basin.
“Up to 6,500 feet of Tertiary strata may be present, some of which may possess very good reservoir qualities,” the state said, and characterized the area as having a moderate to high likelihood of hydrocarbons, “largely in the form of both conventional and unconventional gas accumulations.”
Hansen told Petroleum News in July that the division had already begun work on best interest findings, a necessary step for both an exploration license and for an area-wide lease sale, which the division would like to schedule for 2005 in the southern portion of the basin, along the Alaska Peninsula.
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