Exxon, Imperial Partner with BP in High Arctic

摘要

Something very oily or very gassy must be buried beneath the cold, deep waters of Canada's Beaufort Sea. Gr that is what BP, Exxon Mobil and its 70%-owned Canadian affiliate Imperial Oil apparently believe. The amount of money they already have invested demonstrates the level of their confidence: Exxon and Imperial parted with $585 million (US$568 million) for a half-million-acre tract, dubbed Ajurak, around 70 miles from the delta in 2007. BP paid C$1.2 billion (US$1.16 billion) for adjacent half-million-acre holdings, called Pokak, some 85 miles north of the Mackenzie Paver Delta the following year. Each tract straddles the transition zone between shallow waters of less than 200 feet to depths approaching 4,000 feet, with more than half the acreage in each in the deepest waters, Imperial spokesman Pius Rolheiser told Natural Gas Week.