Leases for Kuvlum, Hammerhead relinquished

Kristen Nelson

Oil and gas leases in the federal Beaufort Sea Hammerhead and Kuvlum units have been relinquished.

U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service spokeswoman Robin Cacy told PNA Jan. 5 that the agency is processing the relinquishments now. The paperwork was complete on Dec. 30, she said.

Cacy said that the first opportunity MMS would have to reoffer the leases would be at OCS Beaufort Sea sale 176 proposed for 2001.

Hammerhead lies in U.S. outer continental shelf waters in the Beaufort Sea north of Point Thomson; Kuvlum is in the Beaufort Sea northeast of Point Thomson.

Last spring, unit operator Chevron U.S.A. Inc. received a five-year extension of the Kuvlum and Hammerhead units to allow for the design, permitting and construction of transportation facilities to the eastern North Slope. Original unit extensions date from May 6, 1993, and were based on uneconomic conditions for the units and the fact that there is no infrastructure available in the eastern North Slope to process or transport production from the units to the trans-Alaska pipeline system.

A Chevron spokesman confirmed relinquishment of the leases, which terminates the units.