BRPC keeping some Greater Bullen leases

Despite surrendering a significant chunk of acreage in the region, a joint venture led by Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. is not giving up entirely on the eastern North Slope.

The local operating arm of Kansas-based independent Alaska Venture Capital Group kept the leases in the northernmost of the six proposed exploration blocks at its proposed Greater Bullen unit and plans to apply for a unit of that acreage this coming January, vice president for land and external affairs Jim Winegarner recently told Petroleum News.

The company kept the nine leases in the “N” block, also known as the Telemark prospect located between the Badami and Point Thomson units, as well as 16 other leases spread across the remainder of the proposed unit area that are set to expire on July 31, 2012.

Telemark would target a Brookian-age reservoir in the Flaxman sand, the company said.

Brooks Range Petroleum applied to form the 200,058-acre Greater Bullen unit in late June over 68 State of Alaska leases on the eastern North Slope, but recently withdrew the unit application and surrendered slightly more than half of its acreage in the area.

Winegarner declined to comment on the reason for the move.

The 106,540 acres and 45 tracts that Brooks Range Petroleum is not retaining will be included in the State of Alaska lease sale planned for the North Slope this December.

—Eric Lidji