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The name has changed, but they’re still No. 1 Top15 companies account for 95 percent of state oil and gas lease acreage in second quarter 2000 Kristen Nelson PNA News Editor
Phillips Alaska (formerly ARCO Alaska) and BP Exploration (Alaska) continue to hold the most state oil and gas lease acreage.
Thirteen of the top 15 companies on the state’s second-quarter 2000 oil and gas lease acreage report — although not all under the same names — were in the top 15 in the second quarter 1999.
The top three remain the same: Phillips Alaska Inc. (ARCO Alaska last year) is No. 1, with 1,171,342 million acres. Last year, ARCO Alaska had 1,126,871 acres and Phillips Petroleum Co. had 81,366 acres. BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., at 923,960 acres, retains the No. 2 spot and Chevron U.S.A. Inc. remains third, with 289,750 acres. For the comparable period last year, BP had 913,475 acres and Chevron had 319,038 acres.
Anadarko Petroleum Co. is No. 4 with 234,732 acres, and Unocal is No. 5 with 210,159 acres, reversing their positions from a year ago. Anadarko added almost 19,000 acres to its holdings from second quarter 1999 to second quarter 2000, and Unocal dropped more than 25,000 acres, mostly to Ocean Energy Resources at the Pioneer unit and to Cook Inlet partner Forcenergy Inc. Some add acreage, some stay the same No. 6 Forcenergy, at 185,084 state oil and gas acres, was No. 7 last year with 178,022 acres. ExxonMobil, which has 178,706 acres and is No. 7 this year, shows on the state’s report with about the same acreage it had second quarter 1999 when it ranked No. 6 with 178,702 acres.
Phillips Petroleum was No. 8 on the 1999 second quarter list.
TotalFinaElf, No. 9 last year as Petrofina Delaware, is No. 8 this year with 75,968 acres, up from 68,051 acres last year. Marathon Oil, No. 10 last year, is now No. 9 with 68,999 acres, up from 63,141 acres last year.
No. 10, Escopeta Production Alaska with 37,635 acres, won acreage at the April 1999 Cook Inlet Areawide oil and gas lease sale but did not show up on the second quarter 1999 list because the title work the state must do after an areawide sale takes several months.
No. 11 this year, J. Andrew Bachner with 28,290 acres, was No. 12 last year. K. C. Forsgren, No. 12 this year with 27,631 acres, was No. 11 last year; both had the same acreage last year.
No. 13, Ocean Energy Resources with 27,626 acres, had no state acreage this time last year. Ocean is operator and partner with Unocal at the Pioneer unit in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, a coalbed methane prospect with its first wells in the test stage.
No. 14, Murphy Exploration and Production (26,383 acres) and No. 15 Clifford Burglin (21,114 acres) had the same rank last year. Last year Murphy had 27,162 acres and Burglin had 23,852 acres. Total acreage up slightly over 1999 Total state acres under lease at the end of June: 3,696,495 acres, up from 3,675,646 acres at the end of June 1999, an increase of less than 1 percent. The top 15 leaseholders accounted for more than 3.5 million acres, almost 95 percent of total acreage.
Percentage of total acreage by company: Phillips Alaska 31.7 percent; BP 25 percent; Chevron 7.8 percent; Anadarko 6.4 percent; Unocal 5.7 percent; Forcenergy 5 percent; ExxonMobil 4.8 percent; TotalFinaElf 2.1 percent; Marathon 1.9 percent; Escopeta 1 percent; Bachner 0.8 percent; Forsgren 0.8 percent; Ocean Energy 0.8 percent; Murphy 0.7 percent; and Burglin 0.6 percent.
State reports released early in July include changes to lease positions through the end of June. Acreage shown includes both exploration and production. Federal oil and gas lease acreage in Alaska is not included in these numbers.
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