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Evergreen more than quadruples holdings CEO Mark Sexton said Colorado coalbed methane producer remains committed to south-central Alaska development Kay Cashman Petroleum News Publisher & Managing Editor
Evergreen Resources announced Sept. 22 that it has acquired an additional 230,000 acres of “prospective unconventional gas properties” in the Matanuska-Susitna area, bringing the Denver-based independent’s total leased acreage in Southcentral Alaska from approximately 70,000 acres to more than 300,000 acres.
Evergreen said in a press release that the new properties — state shallow gas leases — were acquired through “several separate transactions.” One of the largest transactions was with Ted Williams of South Dakota, John Kelso, Evergreen’s director of investor relations, told Petroleum News.
Ownership increases in Pioneer unit A portion of the new acreage is included in the company’s Pioneer unit 35 miles north of Anchorage, in which Evergreen now has the mineral rights to approximately 75,000 acres, up from 58,000 acres less than two months ago.
The majority of the new acreage is adjacent to the Pioneer unit on the northwest, extending about 25 miles up the Susitna River Valley.
Evergreen drilled eight coalbed methane wells in the Pioneer unit in late 2002 and is testing five of them. The company said it plans to drill five stratigraphic test wells on various parts of its acreage “to obtain additional petrophysical data, including information on coal quality and gas content.”
Based on the results of those test wells, Evergreen said it “will determine potential locations in 2004 for additional stratigraphic test wells or multi-well pilots.”
Despite problems, Evergreen committed to Alaska Since Evergreen applied for shallow gas leases in Alaska in August 2000, the company has been “encouraged” by the “enthusiastic” response it has received from state and local officials, company spokesman Jack Ekstrom told Petroleum News Sept. 23.
The administration of Alaska’s former governor, Tony Knowles, often flaunted the fact the Knowles administration had brought Evergreen to the state. They also touted the independent’s environmental record in Colorado, a state with tough environmental regulations rivaling Alaska’s.
In fact, just before Evergreen acquired leases in, and took over operatorship of, the Pioneer unit in May 2001, Knowles presented the company with the prestigious chairman’s stewardship award from the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, an organization of oil and gas producing state governors of which Knowles was chairman.
Evergreen received the award for its produced-water handling program in the Raton basin of southern Colorado — i.e. for its stewardship of the land and its water resources.
Starting this past summer, however, the company has come under fire from a group of citizens in the Mat-Su area concerned about possible depletion or pollution of their drinking water wells as a result of coalbed methane development by Evergreen — a concern that has not been widely voiced at public meetings regarding Evergreen’s plans until recently.
Despite the surge of recent controversy, which Ekstrom said took the company by surprise, Evergreen remains committed to its Alaska coalbed methane program.
On Sept. 22, Evergreen President and CEO Mark Sexton said, “The expansion of our leased acreage base demonstrates our commitment to making shallow gas production a reality in south-central Alaska.”
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