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THE INDEPENDENTS 2003: Burlington waiting for gas pipeline Houston independent holds 32 leases in Alaska’s natural gas-prone Brooks Range Foothills Kay Cashman Petroleum News
Bobby Shackouls, chairman and chief executive officer of Houston-based Burlington Resources, is bullish about his firm’s prospects in Canada’s Arctic.
Already Canada’s third largest gas producer, Burlington has been ramping up its activities in western and northern Canada. Shackouls views the company’s holdings north of the 49th parallel as an important part of an integrated North America gas market where it had 7.049 billion cubic feet of gas reserves at the end of 2002.
Burlington’s plans for the Mackenzie Delta include at least one well this winter, chasing last winter’s successful North Langley K-30 well, drilled by operator Chevron Canada in partnership with Burlington and BP Canada. That well tested at a restricted flow rate of 18 million cubic feet per day (reserves and production potential remain confidential).
Picks up 32 leases in foothills Burlington, a member of the Mackenzie Delta Explorers Group across the border, expanded its global reach to Alaska when its wholly owned subsidiary, 5051 Alaska, successfully bid $1.99 million on 32 tracts in the state’s May 9, 2001, North Slope Foothills areawide lease sale.
Burlington was high bidder on approximately 180,000 acres in the gas prone Brooks Range Foothills. A source at the company told Petroleum News in the summer of 2002 that Burlington would probably do little with its leases until it can be sure a pipeline will be built to take North Slope natural gas to Lower 48 markets. And until Burlington can be sure it can gain access to such a line.
Low risk entry Ellen DeSanctis, vice president of corporate communications, said after the 2001 lease sale that the foothills leases represent a low risk way to enter an area that might soon have a market for its vast gas reserves.
“We are trying to get a toehold in some opportunities in the far northwest of North America that would be in concert with our efforts in the Mackenzie Delta to build a position in what could be future opportunities in North America, particularly gas,” she said. Burlington has done fieldwork and surface mapping in the area, Norm Napier, Burlington Canada’s manager of new ventures and Alaska team leader until recently, said after the lease sale. He said that the company has 2D grid information on the properties and is devising better ways to resolve its data.
With gas supplies diminishing in the United States, Napier said Burlington considers Arctic gas properties to be a sound investment.
Lewis replaces Napier Napier has since been transferred to Houston. Ken Lewis in Calgary has taken his place. Lewis told Petroleum News in October that the company had not picked up any additional leases in Alaska. He would not comment on whether or not the company had plans to shoot additional seismic or do other geological work on its Alaska leases, but confirmed Burlington was waiting for a gasline announcement.
Fast and hard into Canada Burlington had no assets north of the U.S.-Canada border prior to 1999, when it combined its business with Poco Petroleum of Calgary.
The US$2.5 billion transaction provided entry into the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin and made Burlington the fourth largest producer of natural gas in North America.
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