Alaska Department of Resources terminates Point Thomson leases
Published Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Digg
delicious
Facebook
Mixx
Reddit
Stumble It!WASHINGTON — The state Department of Natural Resources has terminated all but one of the leases at the Point Thomson unit.
Kevin Banks, director of the Division of Oil and Gas, said Tuesday that Exxon Mobil and other leaseholders “repeatedly failed” to fulfill their development obligations at the North Slope field.
“The Point Thomson area leases expired because the leases are years beyond their primary terms, are not producing hydrocarbons, do not have any capable wells and are no longer part of a unit,” Banks said in a prepared statement released late Tuesday.
The decision affects 44 expired leases at the 106,200-acre field.
The state expects the leaseholders to appeal. Point Thomson is operated by Exxon on behalf of itself and several other companies, including BP, Chevron and ConocoPhillips.
Banks told KTVA Channel 11 that the leaseholders will now be considered trespassers if they try to do work at the field, even though the legal fight over the field is not complete.
“They could get permits I suppose for surface entry and activities that occur on the surface, but drilling for oil. Any activities that involve that kind of thing will not be allowed,” Banks told the Anchorage television station.
The decision brings the state one step closer to being able to offer the gas-rich area to companies the state believes will be more willing to develop the resource.
The one remaining lease is owned by Exxon. It is set to expire in March 2010.
Exxon and the other leaseholders argue that they have spent $800 million on the unit to date and are best situated to tap its reserves. Exxon recently announced it was going ahead with field work at Point Thomson and had applied for permits to construct an ice road.
“Exxon’s willingness to engage Alaskan companies and workers and contract with Alaskan business for support services with the knowledge that the 23rd plan of development had been rejected and that its leases would soon expire is unfortunate,” Banks said in the statement.
Banks criticized Exxon for trying to elicit public support with a propaganda campaign when they’ve held the leases for more than 30 years without developing them.
“Exxon’s efforts to enlist the public’s sympathy and discourage the state from acting to enforce its laws will not deter the state from moving forward so that these lands can be brought into meaningful production,” he said.
Point Thomson is estimated to hold about a quarter of the North Slope’s 35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves and is considered a cornerstone of any future gas pipeline project.
The field, located between Prudhoe Bay and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, also is believed to contain up to 950 million barrels of oil.
Exxon and its partners have long argued that the oil cannot be produced in the highly pressurized field until some of the gas is tapped. However, the gas has been considered stranded for decades because of low prices and the lack of a pipeline to carry it to market.
The state has been wrestling with Exxon over Point Thomson for years — at least four governors have contemplated evicting the Irving, Texas-based company and its partners for failing to develop the field.
In late 2006, the state finally signaled it had lost patience with Exxon and began the process of taking back the unit after years of approving nearly two dozen development plans that were never fulfilled.
Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin terminated the unit agreement at Point Thomson in April. That decision is still being fought in court.
Community Discussion
Newsminer.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full user's agreement.
Pwn, now we can get our moneys worth.
The 23rd proposal by Exxon was not accepted by the State and not offered until after the State started to pull the leases. I have no sympathy for Exxon. They can bid on and reaquire their leases but this time we need to ensure that there is a sunset clause for a no later than production date that happens to coincide with the timeline for AGIA.
One of the worst things this country ever did was to give corporations constitutional rights. That is not what our founding fathers ever intended. As recently as 150 years ago corporations were held accountable by threat of revocation of the corporation's license if it did not behave responsibly by acting in the public interest as it conducted its affairs.
Alaska should take all possible actions to strip corporations of constitutional protections, ensuring only citizens have those hard fought rights. Then, when soulless multinational corporations come up here and operate continuing criminal enterprises they can will be dissolved forthwith.
Exxon is a corporate psychopath, behaving in the way that the Diagnostic Statistical Manual describes the sort of behavior that leads to people to act with a callous disregard for the lives, health, and safety of their community.
Exxon has fouled Prince William Sound with millions of gallons of crude oil, cheated Alaskans on the TAPS tariffs, lied to regulators about its ability to clean up spilled oil, abused our legal system, spied on Alaskans who were critical of Big Oil, created extensive dossiers on Alaska's elected and non-elected officials, and worse.
DNR, Irwin, and Palin deserve a lot of credit for going after this soulless corporate psychopath.
It is just too bad that they were dumb enough to grant an exclusive license to a Canadian Multinational corporation that in some ways is every bit as bad as Exxon. (Talk to the native people of Canada who have been abused by TC). Worse, the CEO of TransCanada says no gasline project until Exxon is happy.
Sorry, but &*$% Exxon.
Exxon should no longer be welcome in Alaska. Really, they should not be allowed to conduct any sort of business here ever again.
So long Exxgone! Good riddance. It is about time Alaska began to exercise its sovereignty. For too long the oil and gas industry has dominated Alaska's government. Governor Palin and Commissioner Irwin are blazing a path to a new way of doing business in Alaska. Maybe Alaska's people will begin to be considered first in the development of its natural resources. We need that natural gas for Alaska's needs and I hope we get an All Alaska Gas Line ASAP!
Due to the falling price of oil, they are saying we may see $90 a barrel what will happen if gas becomes uneconomical again to develop and transport? Everyone seemed to take for grant extremely high prices. Now it is dropping dramatically and oil companies are buying out their own stocks from holders. There is a twist and turn every step of the way.
Yep, NOW THE FUN BEGINS. Wonder when the State of Alaska is going to open the Point Thomson field for new lease holders? Nothing like cleaning up the mess from a derelict squatter. Wonder what it's going to cost to get the place spruced up again?
EXXON Stockholders might want to take a closer look at their Board of Directors and EXXON's corporation image around the world...getting kicked out of every place you have been in, might mean something.
COME ON BIG OIL, get your act together...because even former Governor Frank Murkowski wanted to kick you out of Point Thompson.
I worked in the oil & gas industry for 17 years. I left when I could no longer stomach the behind the scenes pan handling, etc. How many billions $$ has Exxon profited in this year alone? Yet they say they cannot pay their fines. They beg the courts to forgive debts and ask favors and forgivness. I do not believe them.
Now they have lost their leases. Good. I hope they show some grace and leave peacefully.
11801N --- Yup, you nailed it. I couldn't have said it better myself !!
------
If we kick Exxon off the planet and tell them to go bring back the hydrocarbons on Titan [one of Saturn's moons] they have already stolen enough money from the public to actually afford to buy the space mission.
Before kicking them out of Alaska we should issue them a Subpoena Deuces Tecum giving us the geo-data too.
If Pt.Thomsen is truly the 10k-psi champagne field they say it is, the hi-pressure can drive vortex-separation during the pressure drop with no extra needed energy.
Post a comment
Commenting requires registration.