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Oil patch insider: Hilcorp Alaska sign goes up;
Oil Search lease approvals final
Kay Cashman Petroleum News
A huge Hilcorp Alaska sign is going up at the top of the JL Tower in midtown Anchorage as this issue of Petroleum News goes to press (see rendering in the print and pdf versions).
The 14-story JL Tower houses Hilcorp Alaska’s headquarters. The company has about 50,000 square feet in the 300,000 square foot office building and has just added another 50,000 square feet of space, according to realtor Stewart Smith of SSS Commercial Real Estate (confirmed by Hilcorp source).
After Hilcorp’s purchase of BP Exploration (Alaska)’s upstream and midstream assets closes, Hilcorp will continue to lease approximately 300,000 square feet in the 15-story BP Tower high rise in midtown Anchorage from the building’s owner, Oak Street Real Estate Capital. (Oil Search also leases two stories in the building.)
When asked for confirmation, Luke Miller, manager, Alaska government and public affairs for Hilcorp Energy Co., told Petroleum News the following June 3: “Our current plan is to expand our Anchorage headquarters at the JL Tower in midtown Anchorage. We will not own the BP building after the transaction closes, as BP sold it a few years back. We will, however, inherit the lease. Culture is a critical component of our success as a company. Staying at our current location at the JL Tower ensures we are ready to take over operations on day one and is the right cultural fit for Hilcorp.”
The sign on JL Tower was made and is being installed by Signco of Anchorage. The letters and Hilcorp logo measure 7 feet high by 54 feet long.
- KAY CASHMAN
Oil Search lease approvals final The working interest lease ownership transfers between Armstrong, GMT, Oil Search Alaska and Repsol that have recently appeared on the Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas website are formal approvals by the state of Oil Search taking advantage of an option it closed last year.
“There should be more approvals in the next few weeks as the DNR processes the OSA/Repsol Alignment Agreement assignments. Note the effective dates of the assignments are last summer,” Oil Search’s manager of U.S. media and communications, Amy Burnett, told Petroleum News in a June 3 email in response to being asked to confirm what was behind the lease ownership transfers.
On June 27, 2019, Oil Search exercised its option to increase its stake in Pikka and Horseshoe leases west of the central North Slope, picking up the balance of Armstrong and GMT’s working interest in the acreage. Operator Oil Search and partner Repsol are planning a Pikka development that will produce as much as 150,000 barrels per day.
The payout of the $450 million involved the buyout took place at the end of August.
In the June 27 closing, Oil Search and Repsol also aligned their interests across many of their shared North Slope assets, resulting in Oil Search retaining 51% in the Pikka unit and the Horseshoe block, while also purchasing a 51% interest in leases Repsol acquired in 2017, which are immediately east of Horseshoe within the prospective Nanushuk trend. That deal involved a net payment of $64.3 million from Repsol to Oil Search in the late August transaction.
As far as Oil Search’s future relationship with Armstrong, Oil Search said in July 2019 that the two companies would continue to work together in reviewing opportunities on the North Slope, in accordance with the area of mutual interest agreement, or AMI, that was entered into as part of the original March 2018 acquisition of half of Armstrong’s interest.
Oil Search and Armstrong are still partners in the eastern North Slope’s Lagniappe lease block.
- KAY CASHMAN
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