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State receives 262 shallow gas applications from 36 applicants
Kristen Nelson
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas began accepting applications for shallow gas leases Feb. 29 and received 262 applications from 36 applicants. Leases are on a first-come, first-served basis.
Pirtle Bates, a natural resources officer with the division, said March 3 that the first leases should be issued in four to six months. The leases will be for three-year terms, with extensions of one year at the discretion of the director, and at rentals of 50 cents per acre for the life of the lease, he said.
The program was authorized by the Legislature in 1996, Bates said, and regulations were approved in 1998. The program excludes leased land, the North Slope and Cook Inlet, exploration licenses and Mental Health Trust lands, although Bates said that the commissioner of DNR could request approval from the Mental Health Trust to include its lands in a shallow gas lease. Areas within the Cook Inlet areawide lease sale area could be included in a shallow gas lease, but that, Bates said, would require a waiver from the commissioner.
The division drew numbers from a hat Feb. 29 to rank applicants, all of whose applications were deemed to have been received simultaneously if received by 8:30 a.m. that day. Where applicants have applied for the same areas, leases will be determined by the applicant’s rank in the drawing.
Bates said that of the 36 applicants, 32 had at least something on which they had first priority. He also noted that applications are continuing to be received.
Applicants among the 36 ranked on Feb. 29 include: Dave Lappi and his company, Lapp Resources Inc. (Lappi began the first coalbed gas development in Alaska at Houston, a project now up for sale by Lappi’s former partners); Ray Latchem and his company, Northern Eclipse LLC, currently providing LNG to Fairbanks from a Cook Inlet plant; NANA Development Corp. and Cominco Alaska Inc., partners in the Red Dog mine near Kotzebue — a major energy user; Ocean Energy Resources Inc., operator of the Ocean Energy-Unocal coalbed Pioneer project in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough (filed by Hank Wood, Houston, Texas, as agent) and Evergreen Resources Inc. out of Denver, a company with extensive coalbed methane developments in the Lower 48. Dennis Carlton of Evergreen also filed applications as an individual.
Individual applicants from the Lower 48 include: Franklin Birkholt, Hot Springs, SD; Kevin Collins of Littleton, Colo.; Pamela Emery, Hot Springs, SD; William Fulton, Billings, Mont.; Elisabeth Hollman, Hot Springs, SD; John Hollmann, Hot Springs, SD; Nancy Hollman, Colorado Springs, Colo.; Ronald Hollmann, Colorado Springs, Colo.; Edna Latchem, Baton Rouge, La.; Paula Mills of Bozeman, Mont.; Kenneth Schlenker, Billings, Mont.; Mark Sexton, Evergreen, Colo.; Ted Williams, Billings, Mont.
Individual applicants with Alaska addresses include: Caroline Bradshaw, Anchorage; Kory Bradshaw, Anchorage; Karen Fitzpatrick, Anchorage; Paul Fromson c/o Frederick Boness, Anchorage; Cory Lappi, Anchorage; Linda Lappi, Anchorage; Troy Lappi, Anchorage; Shannon Latchem, Fairbanks; Dennis Murray c/o Frederick Boness, Anchorage; Elizabeth Orell, Anchorage; Jennifer Orell, Anchorage; John Teich c/o Frederick Boness, Anchorage.
Company applicants with Alaska addresses (in addition to those listed above):GRI Inc. c/o Frederick Boness, Anchorage and Growth Resources Ltd. c/o Frederick Boness, Anchorage.
Matanuska-Susitna Borough focus The largest concentration of applications were for tracts in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough in the Palmer-Wasilla area where a handful of coalbed methane wells have been drilled recently; as many as six applications were filed on some sections. Filing for shallow gas leases is by section and a single application can include as many as nine sections. Because tracts are defined by the sections specified by applicants, overlap between applications can be complete or partial.
Applications for tracts in the Mat-Su run from Susitna in the west to Sutton in the east, and from south of Knik to north along the Parks Highway some 25 miles north of Houston. Some applications were also filed for tracts farther north in the Talkeetna area.
East of the Palmer-Wasilla area, applications were filed along the Glenn Highway in the Chickaloon area.
On the Kenai Peninsula, applications were filed north of Nikiski and for sections on the southern peninsula in the Anchor River-Homer area.
In the Interior, applications were filed for tracts from Fairbanks south to North Pole along the Alaska Highway and from Nenana to south of Anderson along the Parks Highway. The largest group of Interior applications start at Delta Junction and run northwest for some 50 miles to the west of the Alaska Highway and the Tanana River.
The only applications in the northern part of Alaska were near the Red Dog mine area where partners NANA and Cominco have said they want to develop gas to fuel the Red Dog mine.
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