Unocal cuts Alaska capital spending to 2000 levels

Kay Cashman, PNA publisher

Unocal Alaska’s 2003 capital budget has been set at $35.5 million, the same amount the company spent in 2000, but half of what it spent in 2001 and 2002.

Unocal Alaska spokeswoman Roxanne Sinz told Petroleum News Alaska in mid-January that the company spent approximately $71.8 million in 2002 and $81.3 million in 2001. In an interview a year ago, Unocal Alaska’s chief executive Chuck Pierce said the company’s capital expenditures in 2000 totaled $35 million.

In November, Unocal said it was “implementing a comprehensive restructuring program to improve Cook Inlet business profitability.” The result was the loss of 71 positions in Alaska, representing approximately 18 percent of the company’s total workforce, and the closure of its Kenai office. The company also said it would have only one workover rig working in Cook Inlet and no drilling rigs through 2003.

In late October, Sinz told PNA that Unocal expected to shut in both its Dillon and Baker platforms within five months.

Budget cuts do not affect interest in North Slope

Unocal is also a minority owner in the North Slope’s Kuparuk River (4.956 percent) and Endicott (10.5 percent) fields.

Unocal Alaska’s manager of land and government affairs, Kevin Tabler, told PNA in a May interview that most of Unocal’s North Slope acreage is considered oil prone.

He said his company is “still getting our North Slope portfolio put together. We’re starting to accumulate North Slope acreage and getting a game plan put together.”

Sinz said the 2003 “budget cuts have not affected” Unocal’s North Slope plans. “We are continuing to seek out investment opportunities and will fund when appropriate.”

What would it take?

Sinz said what Unocal would “find helpful” is:

• Year-round drilling on the North Slope

• Transportation corridors

• Streamlined permitting

• Buy-in at all regulatory agency/state levels of Murkowski's plans for development

Want to know more?

Web site: www.PetroleumNewsAlaska.com

2003

• Jan. 19 Kenai Kachemak Pipeline LLC gets temporary certificate; construction starts

2002

• Nov. 17 Unocal closes Kenai office, eliminates 71 positions

• Nov. 17 Jack-up rig likely for summer 2003

• Nov. 3 Unocal earnings decline slightly as production drops

• Nov. 3 Bidders appear to be filling in around the edges at Oct. 24 state lease sales

• Oct. 13 As many as five new pads possible for Kuparuk River

• Sept. 1 Kenai Kachemak pipeline secures long-term commitments

• Sept. 1 Oil Patch Insider - Unocal plans layoffs; will suspend operations on Baker, Dillon platforms

• Aug. 25 Unocal earns 55 cents per share in second quarter

• Aug. 11 RCA okays Cook Inlet Pipe Line ownership change

• Aug. 11 Pretty Creek producing gas again

• Aug. 11 Unocal, Forest align Hemlock oil pool interests at Trading Bay

• July 21 Alaska’s oil and gas industry asks state for permitting, fiscal certainty

• July 7 Unocal partner in Homer shallow gas leases

• June 30 Unocal cutting jobs in Sugar Land, gulf region

• May 5 Unocal unsuccessful in gas exploration on Lower Kenai

• May 5 Unocal has King Salmon back on line

• Feb. 10 Unocal posts loss for fourth quarter

• Feb. 3 Unocal begins permitting for well near Kasilof

• Feb. 3 State approves two Cook Inlet units

• Jan. 27 Unocal, Marathon announce gas discovery

• Jan. 27 Unocal Alaska capital budget to be around $80 million