ExxonMobil now owns a dominant majority of Alaska North Slope natural gas reserves following its agreement to buy Chevron's 25% share of the Point Thomson field for an undisclosed price.
With the addition of the Chevron share, in a deal announced Tuesday, ExxonMobil's percentage share in Point Thomson increases to 62%. BP's 32% share of the field remains unchanged, as does 5% held by ConocoPhillips and the remainder owned by a number of minority owners.
The deal has enlarged ExxonMobil's share of overall North Slope proven gas reserves, mainly Point Thomson and the Prudhoe Bay field. Under the new ownership structure, including an estimated 8 Tcf of gas reserves at Point Thomson and 26 Tcf at Prudhoe Bay, ExxonMobil now owns 14.42 Tcf overall compared with 9.78 Tcf overall for ConocoPhillips and 9.41 Tcf overall for BP.
ExxonMobil owns about 36.4% of Prudhoe Bay; ConocoPhillips owns 36.08%, BP 26.38% and Chevron 1.16%, according to figures provided by the state Division of Oil and Gas.
Chevron has entered into an agreement to sell its 25% interest in the Point Thomson natural gas and condensate field on Alaska's North Slope to ExxonMobil for an undisclosed price, spokesmen for both companies said Tuesday.
In addition to gas, Point Thomson holds 200 million barrels of condensate liquids and an additional 200 million barrels of conventional oil in small deposits near the Point Thomson gas reservoir.
"Chevron's interest was transferred to ExxonMobil to facilitate execution of the Settlement Agreement" between Point Thomson leaseowners and the state of Alaska, ExxonMobil spokesman David Eglinton said.
"Chevron has elected to exit Point Thomson. Going forward, Chevron will not be a part of that development," Chevron spokesman Russell Johnson said in a statement. "In evaluating the opportunity, we determined that Point Thomson is unable to compete for capital with other global opportunities in Chevron's portfolio.
"Chevron continues to invest in Alaska through its minority interests in the Prudhoe Bay, Kuparuk and Endicott fields, as well as the TransAlaska Pipeline. Chevron has agreed to assign its interest in Point Thomson to ExxonMobil. Terms of the agreement are confidential," Johnson added.
The agreement was executed March 28, he said.
The settlement with the state was announced last Friday, March 30, by Govenor Sean Parnell. Point Thomson has been at the center of a contentious lawsuit with the state over past work obligations, litigation which was settled last week. Part of the agreement involves the major North Slope producers, BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil, working together on a possible gas pipeline and natural gas liquefaction export project.
As majority owner of North Slope gas reserves, ExxonMobil will now take the lead on that project, industry sources in Alaska said. The settlement also requires the three producers to develop a new gas project development plan with its refocus on LNG by September 30.
