Ramshorn has picked up TG World acreage

Ramshorn Investments has increased its acreage position in Brooks Range Petroleum Corp.-operated North Slope prospects, picking up acreage previously held by TG World Energy.

Ramshorn is a Houston-based private equity company associated with drilling contractor Nabors Industries Inc.

That reduces the joint venture partners in BRPC to two: the parent, Alaska Venture Capital Group, and Ramshorn.

TVI Pacific Inc. said Nov. 9 that its wholly owned subsidiary, TG World Energy Inc., had completed a transaction to sell its leasehold interests in Alaska for approximately $16 million, saying at the time that it couldn’t name the purchaser, but that it was a party “already very active on the North Slope.” (See story in Nov. 13 issue of Petroleum News.)

TG World Energy had been a partner in Alaska Venture Capital Group subsidiary BRCP since 2006.

The Alaska Division of Oil and Gas received paperwork for the sale in mid-November, showing the purchaser as Ramshorn Investment.

Ramshorn, a partner in BRPC since 2006, held 62,175 acres of state oil and gas leases prior to acquiring TG World’s acreage. TG World Energy held 36,089 acres, giving Ramshorn a combined 98,264 acres.

Division records from early November show BRPC parent Alaska Venture Capital Group with 111,125 acres and Brooks Range Development Corp. (acreage held by former partner Bow Valley) with 22,654 acres. Bow Valley became part of the BRPC-operated joint venture in 2006, but after it was acquired by Dana Petroleum, an independent U.K. exploration and production company based in Aberdeen, Scotland, Dana sold the Bow Valley acreage back to the joint venture.

BRPC has been one of the most active explorers on the North Slope in the last few years. It operates the Beechey Point unit in the Gwydyr Bay area of the North Slope, where it has been drilling since 2007, and is in the process of forming three more units.

—Kristen Nelson