Exxon Mobil, BP May Lose Leases to Alaska Oil Field

Bloomberg.com:

Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc and other oil companies may have their leases for an Alaska oil and gas field revoked by the state because they took too long to develop it, a judge said.

Alaska Superior Court Judge Sharon Gleason ruled yesterday that the state was allowed in 2006 to revoke its agreement with the companies, which have held the leases for Point Thomson since the 1970s, because they failed to bring the field into production.

“This ruling represents another significant step forward in the state’s efforts to develop the valuable oil and gas resources in the Point Thomson reservoir and to hold the lessees to the commitments they made in the unit agreement,” Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said today in a statement.

Gleason ordered the Alaska Department of Natural Resources to hold a hearing on the lease terminations. She said the agency didn’t give the companies enough notice to respond when it decided to revoke the agreement.

The companies “have the legal right to have another opportunity but we don’t have to give it to them,” Nan Thompson, a petroleum unit manager at the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, said in a phone interview today. “We just have to hear them out.”

Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Kimberly Johnson Brasington said in an e-mailed statement the company is pleased that the Superior Court “reversed the DNR’s decision terminating the PTU.”

“The Superior Court decision confirms that the DNR action terminating the PTU was wrong,” she said. ExxonMobil and the other Point Thompson interest owners will continue to work with Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources to resolve this issue, she added.

A BP representative couldn’t be reached for comment immediately.

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