Varied leases activity in February report

•The Alaska Department of Natural Resources terminated six North Slope leases operated by Great Bear Petroleum Ventures II LLC in February for failure to pay rent.

The leases were located in two clusters south of the Prudhoe Bay unit. ADL 392599, ADL 392601, ADL 392602 and ADL 392603 were in one cluster close to the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and included the ARCO N. Franklin Bluffs Unit No. 1 well. ADL 392608 and ADL 392626 were to the northwest. The leases were set to expire in 2025.

The state also approved the transfer of a 1.61 percent royalty interest in 31 leases operated by Great Bear Petroleum Ventures I LLC to Geokinetics USA Inc.

•The state terminated five North Slope leases operated by Doyon Ltd. for failure to pay rent. The leases - ADL 392444, ADL 392446, ADL 392447, ADL 392448 and ADL 392449 - are located in the Nenana basin, where the company has been exploring.

•As reported in this issue, the state terminated the Armstrong Energy LLC-operated Qugruk unit in late January. Its leases have now passed into their secondary terms.

Hilcorp Alaska LLC surrendered eight leases in February.

The first - ADL 393174 - was created by segregation as part of the fifth expansion of the Milne Point unit in early May 2016 and would have expired in late April 2025.

The remaining seven were in Cook Inlet. ADL 392227, ADL 392235 and ADL 392236 are near the Trading Bay unit. ADL 392243, ADL 392245, ADL 392248 and ADL 392252 are part of an un-unitized cluster of leases east of the Deep Creek unit in the southern Kenai Peninsula. All seven leases were set to expire in late April 2023.

- ERIC LIDJI

—A copyrighted oil and gas lease map from Mapmakers Alaska was a research tool used in preparing this story.