Shallow gas leaseholders added to list

Kristen Nelson

The top state oil and gas leaseholders have remained the same over the last year: Phillips Alaska Inc., BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., Chevron USA Inc., Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Unocal, ExxonMobil, Forest Oil Corp. (successor to Forcenergy’s Alaska acreage) and Marathon Oil Co.

But below those companies individuals appear with acreage positions of 30,000-40,000 acres — all from the state’s new shallow gas leasing program. Dave Lappi is the notification name for this group of lessees (Cory Lappi, Troy Lappi, Kory Bradshaw, Linda Lappi, Elizabeth Orell, Caroline Bradshaw, Karen Fitzpatrick and Jennifer Orell).

The leases are adjacent in the Delta Junction area and Lappi is working with Evergreen Resources Inc. of Denver, operator of the Pioneer unit in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, on a unit plan for the leases which would allow them to be developed as a block (see stories in previous issues of Petroleum News • Alaska).

Of some 3.5 million acres of state land under oil and gas lease, more than 2.5 million acres are onshore, less than a million acres offshore.