BP sells more exploration leases The three North Slope packages sold total almost 200,000 acres Kay Cashman Petroleum News Publisher & Managing Editor
BP Exploration (Alaska) has sold three of the 12 North Slope exploration acreage bundles it put up for sale in January and closed May 6. The three packages represent nearly half the 405,000 acres BP had for sale outside of its North Slope producing acreage.
“The winning bids were for leases and data in the Colville, North Milne and Southeast Prudhoe areas,” BP spokesman Daren Beaudo told Petroleum News June 25.
The successful bidders names were not released, he said, because “commercial arrangements have not been finalized.”
BP said last year that the oil and gas leases were being offered to 15 oil companies, including independents, “positioned to prospect the leases.” Some bids did not qualify Beaudo said 222,959 acres will be “relinquished back to the state of Alaska for re-apportionment or, in some, cases may be assumed by partners who have preferential rights.”
The packages sold included “land, data and intellectual property … as well as 2D and 3D seismic data and well data, including core. … BP’s purpose in the sale was to spur and accelerate new investment and production on the North Slope by other companies, including independents,” he said. “This lease offering was consistent with BP’s plans announced in 2002 to focus on resources in and around existing fields and near existing infrastructure, where our company has had the greatest success.”
Some bids “did not qualify for consideration, as they did not conform to the bidding guidelines,” Beaudo said.
“The ultimate prize for the effort was to increase exploration activity on the North Slope. BP is happy with the outcome since the offering generated a lot of interest as gauged by the number of companies receiving data, the quantity of data distributed and meetings conducted,” he said.
In April, the company confirmed it had sold 594,900 net exploration acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and the Brooks Range Foothills to Anadarko Petroleum. (See May 4 Petroleum News article.)
BP has put a total of approximately 1 million net acres of exploration leases on the North up for sale in the last year. The company’s remaining exploration block in Alaska is in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which Beaudo said in May was not up for sale.
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