|
THE EXPLORERS 2005: Shell, Conoco buy EnCana’s Beaufort leases
Although they wouldn’t comment on it until Oct. 19, EnCana has sold all of its remaining oil and gas acreage in Alaska. (See related story on page 81 of this issue.)
Nineteen out of its 24 Beaufort Sea outer continental shelf leases were sold to Shell and five to ConocoPhillips.
“We have no more leases in Alaska,” EnCana spokesman Alan Boras told Petroleum News Oct. 19, 2005.
Boras also confirmed that a few months earlier EnCana had sold its one-third interest in a Brooks Range Foothills joint venture involving approximately 1.5 million acres to partners Anadarko Petroleum and Petro-Canada.
Shell leases in wildcat region The EnCana tracts purchased by Shell and ConocoPhillips were initially won in U.S. Minerals Management Service lease sale 186, held in September 2003.
The five leases being assigned to ConocoPhillips are approximately 12 miles northeast of BP’s Liberty prospect.
The 19 offshore leases being transferred to Shell are in a wildcat region of the western Beaufort, north of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in the Smith Bay area. They adjoin ConocoPhillips leases that were acquired in 1996 at MMS sale 144, and lie approximately 12-18 miles northeast of the Simpson wells in NPR-A.
According to MMS Alaska Director John Goll there are no wells in the immediate area. The leases are in a hole between exploration wells, he said following the 2003 lease sale.
Shell spokeswoman Stacy Hutchinson told Petroleum News that the EnCana leases “add diversity to our Beaufort leasehold … and are consistent with our long-term strategy in Alaska of pursuing high impact exploration opportunities in areas with robust petroleum systems.”
MMS spokeswoman Robin Cacy said the lease assignments to Shell and ConocoPhillips “still need to go through a bond adequacy review and a Department of Justice anti-trust review.”
—Kay Cashman
| 