Apache Corp. moves into Alaska in a big way: Q & A with general manager John L. Hendrix.

• Author: Orr, Vanessa
• Position: OIL & GAS - Interview - Company overview

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Founded in 1954, Apache Corp., which is headquartered in Houston, Texas, has more than 4,500 employees worldwide. More than half of its production is from fields in North America with significant operations in Egypt, the United Kingdom sector of the North Sea, Australia and Argentina.

Now considered one of the world's top independent oil and gas exploration and production companies, at year-end 2010, Apache claimed $43 billion in total assets. That same year, as part of a new global exploration program, the company began acquiring acreage in Alaska, including more than 300,000 acres of oil and gas leases in Cook Inlet from the Alaska Mental Health Land Trust and through private acquisition. In June 2011, the company obtained another 500,000 acres through the State oil and gas lease sale. The company now holds 800,000 acres in the Cook Inlet region, where it began a 3D seismic study in September.

John L. Hendrix, general manager for Apache in Alaska, is responsible for running operations on the Last Frontier. At the time this article was written, he was setting up Apache's newest office in Alaska.

ABM: How's the move going?

Hendrix: Great! We're in temporary offices now, but on the first of the year, we'll be moving into Peterson Tower. We have three employees, but are growing, and we currently employ over 200 contractors on our seismic project in Cook Inlet.

ABM: It's interesting that Apache is focused on Cook Inlet, particularly at a time when other companies are pulling out of the area because of declining oil and gas production. Do you know something that others don't?

Hendrix: We're excited about being in Cook Inlet. It's a proven oil basin that for years has been forgotten when it comes to oil. Oil was discovered on the Kenai Peninsula near Swanson River in 1957, and it was in its heyday in the 1960s. Then Prudhoe Bay was discovered, and all the focus moved up there. The big money went north. I grew up in Homer and went to work in Prudhoe Bay in 1980, working there through fall of 1999. Even today, the resources in Cook Inlet are mostly ignored. For example, when people today talk about oil projects or issues, they talk about the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, Prudhoe Bay and the North Slope. They aren't talking about Cook Inlet.

ABM: Yet Apache has chosen to invest there.

Hendrix: Apache is the largest leaseholder in Cook Inlet with 800,000-plus acres. We looked at the historical oil play and decided to get an...