Buccaneer sale set for October

The Alaska assets of Buccaneer Energy Ltd. will go on the auction block by the end of October, according to a recent ruling from a federal bankruptcy judge in Texas.

If Buccaneer gets more than one qualified bid, the bankrupt Australian independent will hold an auction starting the morning of Oct. 27, according to the terms of an Oct. 17 ruling from Judge David R. Jones of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. If the solicitation fails to yield any qualified bids, Buccaneer would instead ask the court for permission to sell its assets directly to AIX Energy LLC, its largest creditor.

A proposed sale agreement has been drafted but needs court approval to be finalized. The draft agreement currently omits the name of the buyer and the amount of the purchase.

The court intends to hold a hearing on Oct. 31 to finalize the sale.

The court is accepting objections to the proposed sale through Oct. 29. The sale has been complicated by an ongoing correlative right dispute at the onshore Kenai Loop gas field.

Cook Inlet Region Inc. previously challenged one aspect of the sale in particular: selling all the assets in bulk rather than allowing potential buyers to bid on specific assets.

- Eric Lidji