With news of a dry well 20 miles northeast of Homer on East End Road, Buccaneer Alaska LLC saw its stock fall to 7/10ths of a cent on Friday February 14, before slightly rebounding to 8/10ths of a cent. Today's 4-Traders quote Buccaneer's stock price at 1 cent a share.

As a result of the halted well, drilled to a depth of 3,700 feet, and coming up with no sign of natural gas, Buccaneer is asking the state of Alaska for the return of $1.2 million in performance bonds paid to the state. As well, Buccaneer plans to file for $2.31 million in an ACES drilling rebate and $1.58 million in an ACES NOL rebate offered as incentive for Cook Inlet drilling. Buccaneer says that this will lower the total drilling costs of $9.4 million to a total of $4.35 million.

The state has replied that it is keeping at least one of the two $600,000 performance bonds because Buccaneer failed to begin drilling by the December 1 deadline. That Deadline was was previously extended.

According to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources in December, the second $600,000 bond required Buccaneer to drill to a depth of 4,965 feet, then test, plug or abandon the well by January 31st. That drilling depth was never reached and the deadline for testing, plugging or abandoning the well is long past. Buccaneer did not begin drilling the West Eagle #1 well until January 22nd.

Buccaneer has fenced of the West Eagle site and plans on taking down the temporary buildings there. They have no plans of additional wells at the site. Buccaneer CEO Curtis Burton says, “After having enjoyed discoveries at the Kenai Loop and Cosmopolitan fields, the results of the West Eagle well are disappointing. The company will now focus its efforts towards Tyonek Deep and Kenai Loop,”.

CIRI, the Cook Inlet Native Regional corporation says that Buccaneer is now pumping gas illegally from the Kenai wells. They say that the company does not have a royalty agreement in place for past and present profits to be split between CIRI, the state, and the Mental Health Trust on which their wells are situated.