Fairbanks Daily News-Miner from Fairbanks, Alaska • Page 13

Alaska, Doily Newt-Miner, Monday, August 18, 1969 1 NEW are the eight new tracts, embodying nearly 20,000 acres, which the Alaska Department of Natural Resources announced would also be put up for competitive leasing at next month's lease sale on the North Slope, bringing the total acreage to nearly 451,000. Arrows designate four new tracts offshore, and four inland, which are due west and south of Beechey Point, respectively, Sec storv below). Reason for Lease Sale Change ByJOELaROCCA Resources Editor Although the Alaska Department of Natural Resources says it cannot divulge the sources of information on which Commissioner Tom Kelly based hls last week to add nearf 20 000 acres to next month's North hlope lease sale, he apparently capitulated to pressure from one or more of four major oil firms in making the decision. The four all either hold leases, or are drilling on tracts adjacent to, or very near, the eight new ones which Kelly designated last week. The four majors are the logical sources for the additional geological information which the department said triggered the addition of Tracts 172 through 179.

Four of the tracts are located offshore from Milne Point, just west of Beechey Point. Those are bounded by tracts leased jointly by BP and ARCO, with the latter operator. Standard Oil of California is drilling five or six miles away. The other four are partially bounded by tracts leased jointly by ARCO and Humble, again with ARCO the operator, which is now drilling on a contiguous tract just south of Tract 179. In each case, other juxtaposed tracts are unleased and some of those are being offered at next month's sale.

The News-Miner was unable late last week to contact Pedro Denton, chief of the State Division of Lands' minerals section, who is handling the sale's complex administrative details. However, another aide there said the decision to add the new acreage was "probably not" based on the section's original recommendation to the commissioner. That decision was made at the commissioner level, the aide told the News-Miner. An effort to reach Kelly in Juneau was also unsuccessful, but Deputy Commissioner Dale Wellington confirmed that the decision was made at the departmental level. Asked why the acreage wasn't included in the original notice, Wellington said, "We didn't have the information at the time," pointing out that "a number of wells are being drilled up there." The decision was based on new information furnished by the department's Division of Oil Gas, he added.

When asked to elaborate on the nature of the new information, and its source or sources, Wellington demurred, terming the information "confidential." Kelly's action gives the three leaseholders in that area a distinct advantage in bidding on the acreage at next month's keenly competitive lease sale, according to local observers who plan to bid on some of the leases. Cabinet Unit Sees Low Cost ForAlaskaOil From the Wall Street Journal WASHINGTON-Estimating recoverable oil reserves on Alaska's North Slope at 10 billion barrels, a U.S. Government task force predicted that this fuel could start flowing to world markets in 1972 at prices well below current market HAS THE U. S. INTERIOR DEPT.

really changed Secretary Walter J. Hickel from the anticonservationist some thought he was to the arch-conservationist others be sold competitively at any point in the continental United States, even if all U.S. oil import quotas were removed," accordingto an economic by President Ni xon's Cabinet committe reviewing oil import'controls. It's understood the Government is seeking oil industry comment on the task force estimates of producing and marketing costs for Alaskan oil, which it said could begin to flow to markets at a rate of 500,000 barrels a day in mid-1972 and increase to two million barrels a day by 1976. (Continued from Page A-l) Hawaii, Washington, Manitoba, Ohio State, Colorado State, Miami, Connecticut, Michigan, Kentucky, California, St.

Paul (Ottawa), Chicago, Toronto, Oregon, Indiana and Alaska Methodist. Also included are Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sarah Lawrence College and Chico (Calif.) State College. That imposing list academicians is complemented by an equally impressive roster of high-powered practitioners, including Rollin Eckis, chairman, Atlantic Richfield's board of directors; J.P. Gallagher, president, Dome Petroleum, Calgary; Frank Ikard, president, American Petroleum Institute; Dr. Robert Weeden, Alaska Dept.

of Fish Game; Bryan Sage, BP biologist, London; Dr. Hiroshi Kasahara, United Nations; Lowell Wakefield Wakefield Fisheries, Port Wakefield; Dr. H. Bentley Glass, president, American Association for the Advancement of Science; Stanley Haas manager, Humble Oil's "Manhattan Project;" Dr. Robert F.

Scott, director, U.S. Interior Department's Division of Refuges; William Van Ness, counsel for the U.S. Senate's Interior and Insular Affairs Committee; Dr. Edgar Wayburn, vice president, Sierra Club; James H. Galloway, vice president, Humble Oil; Dr.

Leslie Glasgow, assistant secretary of the Interior and many many others. ISEGR Director Vic Fischer chose a distinctly inappropriate week's meeting of the Farthest North Press relate this "off the record" anecdote, and I can scarcely believe he seriously expected it to be treated as such. After it got out that the oil industry's hyper-critic, Robert Engler had been invited to give a paper at the Sci-Kon based on his devastating industry critique, The Politics of Oil," the powerful American Petroleum Institute nervously sought a conference podium from which to launch its counter-attack. ISEGR delightedly acquiesed, and API's apprehensions resulted in the programming of its president, Frank Ikard, who will join Fischer, Engler A.R.Thompson of the University of British to be the top legal expert in Canada on oil and gas, Alaska's Commissioner of Natural Resources Tom Kelly, F.G. Larminie, B.P.'s man in Alaska and Rep Gene Guess, chairman of the Alaska Legislative Council on a panel entitled Petroleum, Politics and Government," a session which should jam Pattv Gymnasium.

ICY CONT RACT, yet to be announced, which the rrans-Alaska lp eline System has bestowed upon the Burgess Construction Co here to build its $10 million oil pipeline haulroad from Livengood to the Yukon River this year, entails much more than readily meets the eye. Its award, eagerly sought by Burgess, as well as several other major construction firms in- Alaska, including Green Bros, and Peter Kiewit Sons' has tipped a crucial competitive balance on the Alaskan construction market heavily in favor of the winner, Burgess. That announcement may come today, but if not probably no later than mid-week, although the unsuccessful bidders have known for some time that their bids were rejected by TAPS, which notified them by telegram several weeks ago that they would not get the job. TAPS has yet to advise Burgess officially that it's the successful bidder, although an informal acknowledgement was made some time ago, substantial enough to prompt Burgess to go ahead with its preparations for the lucrative 50-mile road job. Burgess has been feverishly assembling a construction camp a few miles west of Livengood for the past few days, moving men and equipment onto Lurking in the wings is a rumor, stretching from here to Seattle that Burgess won the contract even though it was not the low bidder.

At first blush, that possibility may not seem relevent, even if true, since a private bid solicitor is not bound to the same terms as a public solicitor, and can freely select the highest bidder rather than the lowest, if it chooses. But what thrusts the speculation into a more significant and credible context are the dilatory tactics which the U.S. Interior Dept. has employed ng the necessar mit for the road's construction across largely federal domain. 6 Some here suspect there were "other considerations" in the award of the contract, exclusive of mere bid criteria.

In any event, winning the contract has put Burgess in an enviable and self-perpetuating competitive position which will permit it to snatch up virtually any construction job in Alaska it chooses, by virtue of the tremendous capital investment in machinery and equipment which the haul road job will profitably allow. CONTINUING investigation into the recent double fatality on the North Slope is mushrooming, with state authorities as well as local union officials reportedly showing increased interest in the safety aspects or lack thereof. I he vict.ms died while working under a 12-inch concrete floor slab which collapsed, apparently because of inadequate shoring. Their presence beneath the unfinished pour violated an earlier agreement between a union spokesman and a job supervisor stemming from the job's suspect safety conditions, according to one source. The senseless tragedy may hopefully WS and closer with the state's A J2ff' cmminently successful from the Ut te? with one of the most included, for the week Were 3S they walked off story The acka.