Apache relinquishes Cook Inlet leasehold

The state Division of Oil and Gas terminated 84 Apache Alaska Corp. leases in September for failure to pay rent. The Texas-based independent suspended its Alaska program earlier this year and announced plans to allow its acreage to expire.

The state terminated one lease operated by Alaska LLC for failure to pay rent. The offshore lease - ADL 391465 - was adjacent to the Kitchen Lights unit.

The Glacier Oil & Gas Corp. subsidiary Cook Inlet Energy LLC surrendered lease ADL 391877. The lease was on the west side of Cook Inlet, north of the Lewis River unit.

A pair of Alaska Natural Gas Corp. leases expired at the end of their primary terms at the end of August. ADL 391463 and ADL 391464 were offshore leases located between the Cook Inlet Energy-operated Trading Bay unit to the north and Redoubt unit to the south.

The state approved the transfer of a 4.16667 percent royalty interest in three North Slope leases - ADL 392047, ADL 392048 and ADL 392049 - from Armstrong Energy LLC to William D. Armstrong. Armstrong Energy acquired the leases from Royale Energy Inc.

The state is considering 13 separate requests to transfer small royalty interests in five leases at the Redoubt unit from independent investors to operator Cook Inlet Energy.

The state is considering three separate requests from Montaigne Minerals LLC to transfer small royalty interests in the AIX Energy-operated ADL 391094 to three companies.

- ERIC LIDJI

—A copyrighted oil and gas lease map from Mapmakers Alaska was a research tool used in preparing this story.