Acreage under state oil and gas lease up 10 percent

ARCO, BP, Unocal remain first, second, third; Chevron moves into fourth in total acres leased, gaining 76,943 acres; Forcenergy takes fifth place

Kristen Nelson

PNA News Editor

At 3,213,572 acres, the acreage the state had under oil and gas lease at the end of this year’s third quarter was up by more than 10 percent from a year ago.

That figure reflects 324,178 acres leased in sale 86 (Beaufort Sea) in November of last year and 98,011 acres leased at sale 85A-W (Cook Inlet) in February of this year. Results from this summer’s sale 87 (North Slope) are not reflected in the third quarter figures (see the sale 87 results story in the land and leasing section of this edition).

The top 20 state oil and gas leaseholders (see accompanying table) account for more than 97 percent of acreage leased, with ARCO Alaska Inc. leading at 975,809 acres and BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. second at 898,033 acres.

Acres shown include developed acreage — leases which are part of units or held by production — as well as exploration acreage. Of the 3.2 million total acres under state oil and gas lease at the end of September, 56.5 percent, more than 1.8 million acres, is undeveloped.

The rest of this story is available from Petroleum News • Alaska by calling the circulation manager Dan Wilcox at 522-9469 for back issue copies. (Oct. 1998)