Furie Operating Alaska has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, and plans to sell its oil and gas exploration and production operations.
That leaves Hilcorp as the only gas producer in Cook Inlet, putting it in an even stronger position to call the shots on price.
Furie, along with its parent company, Cornucopia Oil and & Gas Company, and its affiliate, Corsair Oil & Gas LLC, filed the bankruptcy papers, reporting up to 49 creditors, assets of $1 million to $50 million, and liabilities of $100 million to $500 million.
Furie has failed this year to meet its contracted agreement to supply gas to Enstar Natural Gas Company.
The Texas company operated the offshore Kitchen Lights natural gas field in Cook Inlet and has a contract to supply Homer Electric Association. But several things went wrong, from late arrival of rigs to technical problems.
Signs have pointed to financial distress as Furie stopped supplying gas to Enstar earlier this year and Homer Electric has been buying its gas on short term contracts.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the company was “struggling with uncertainties over a state tax-credit program.”
Just for the record. Gov Parnell’s SB 21 repealed the qualified exploration tax credits for the North Slope (m) immediately, and the credits for Cook Inlet and Middle Earth (o & p) in 2021. See: SB 21, page 29/30 repealer clauses.
The Legislature sped up the repeal effective dates. With the end of the program, additional explain in Cook Inlet goes away too.
Bruce
Because “state tax-credit program.” can not be your main business model.
It is like the song from Queen ” another one bites the dust”, In my humble opinion, I feel the truth has been hidden for years. I feel the sad thing is no one may never write about the real reasons why almost everyone who invest in oil and gas in Alaska lose lots of risk capital, file for bankrupt or leaves before they do.
I feel good insightful people need to push the state leaders to trash the whole overpriced and overburden oil and gas regulatory system and quickly adopt a superior one that is tried and true from another oil state that does not destroy smaller oil and gas investors but rather brings new prosperity to everyone! Time is of the essence!
Why is Alaska doing so bad compared to the other big oil and gas states? Is it Oil haters in Alaska? Is it Monopoly Lovers in Alaska? Is it Bad management of the peoples oil and gas lands that is and has been killing the Alaskan oil and gas industry and the state’s economy?
I feel one of the many things that would have helped smaller Gas competitors like Furie is provide “a set aside gas market” or a “spot gas market” but that will never happen in Alaska because big gas monopolies are Kings and fair competition is not favored under the current abusive rules. This is sad because the people of Alaska pay more and more money for the natural gas to heat their homes, the fact is without little to no competition I fear the price of gas this winter will hurt many people!
The people in Alaska may be paying highest for natural gas in the nation this winter unless they pay attention and fix this broken system.
Cook Inlet oil company bankruptcy, extreme Cook Inlet tides with 7 knot currents, old oil rigs, decaying pipelines on the bottom built in the 1950’s…what could possibly go wrong?
Cook Inlet had the lowest prices in the Nation until they rejected an offer by the producer to link prices with Henry Hub. Too big an increase, Alaska’s regulators said. So they left and sold to Hill Corp. Hill Corp is a fantastic company, with great staff. But producing gas in a tiny fixed market like Anch/MatSu/Kenai is expensive. And the Ak regulators have now approved prices far above Henry Hub.
Once the cheapest in the country, excepting perhaps the shipping of LNG remote Canadian villages, Cook Inlet is now the most expensive by far.
Too expensive to use to make fertilizer, etc. It lacks any off season swing use.
Makes it really hard to watch Russian gas from Yamal sail thru thicker ice, on Chinese and Korean ice tankers, right past Alaska.
Alaska is simply the highest risk environment for developent on planet earth. Will Alaska remain our country’s mineral and resource warehouse – preserved on ice waiting for the Chinese to develop it for themselves? Just wondering.
Alaska has a good leader at the DNR DOG and the Governor and the President will let the plan to ship oil and gas to our Pacific Rim trading partners and make Alaska great and prosperous again.
I don’t think I want to work on that oil rig, its mission something, like about three support stanchions. : )
On 360 North Gavel to Gavel, Bill Armstrong implied on 2/29/16 to the Alaska legislators at a HB 247 hearing that…. everything below ground is great in Alaska but the problem is what is above ground, “you guys”, I feel he was implying bad state laws, regulators and regulations messed things up. Alaska needs a a tax credit of 100% tax credit for every dry well, joining but maybe not!! This will make everyone forget about all the wrong things above ground and kick start the state of Alaska’s dying oil industry and double if not triple the Permanent Fund starting now and make Alaska great again.
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