Ann: Half Yearly Report and Accounts, page-159

Today 09:32 Price: 1.85
Doors1111 19 posts
Alaska gives ConocoPhillips a shot

Just to add a little spice and get things back into perspective less than 2 weeks out. Conocopholips is expanding it Nslope exposure... Alaska officials will allow ConocoPhillips to expand an existing North Slope oil field into an area near big discoveries, but only if it agrees to development steps that include drilling a well by June and possibly paying the state millions of dollars. The payments total $7 million if ConocoPhillips plans to bring the new leases into production in the coming years. They are meant to replace revenue that Alaska might have made had it auctioned the Tofkat area in a competitive lease sale. ConocoPhillips could also lose the Tofkat-area leases if it accepts the state's terms and does not drill in time, according to the 21-page decision, issued Tuesday by Natural Resources Commissioner Andy Mack. The area encompasses about 9,000 acres a few miles northeast of Nuiqsut village, extending south from ConocoPhillips' existing Colville River Unit. The top objective is getting the area into production safely so the state can collect a royalty portion of the oil produced, Mack said in an interview Friday. "The area around the Colville Delta continues to impress the state as the most likely area where new production can come online in the near future," Mack said. The stakes at the prospect are high, suggesting it could attract significant income if the state offered it to bidding companies in a lease sale. But doing so could also restart the clock on development, leading to delays in a state that desperately wants more oil production to help close a $2.5 billion deficit. Oil taxes and the sale of royalty oil make up most of the state's revenue. ConocoPhillips has sought to expand into the new area, saying it can develop it quickly if it's part of the Colville River Unit. But ConocoPhillips has already twice failed to drill it as the state expected, once in 2002 and again this year. ConocoPhillips has said the delay this year came after the nearby Nuiqsut residents sought a slower pace of development. Mack said this new decision will protect Nuiqsut, the state and other organizations in the area, including the Arctic Slope Regional Corp., a Native regional corporation that owns the land with the state. Natalie Lowman, a ConocoPhillips spokeswoman, said Thursday the company is reviewing Mack's decision. The company has until Aug. 14 to accept the terms. Oil independent Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. discovered oil there in 2008 but was also unable to develop it. The prospect is potentially linked geologically to what may be a giant oil field heralded since 2015 by Denver-based Armstrong Oil and Gas and Spanish oil major Repsol. Bill Armstrong, president of Armstrong Oil, said on Friday that Tofkat is "directly in line with and between" his company's discoveries at its Pikka field and at Armstrong's wildcat w
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