Florida company seeks to expand North Slope oil unit near ANWR

Donkel Oil & Gas is asking Alaska to fold three more tracts into the Greater Point Thomson Unit, a step that could widen the development footprint along the Staines River at the edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The expansion filing, deemed complete June 15, would bring ADL 392127, ADL 392128 and ADL 392132 into a unit that already covers a sizable offshore North Slope position.

The company is based at 1030 Weathered Wood Circle in Winter Springs, Florida, but the decision now sits on land and water that matter far more locally than corporate geography. Alaska’s public notice shows Donkel filed the original Greater Point Thomson unit application on November 9, 2022, and that it was deemed complete on December 21, 2022. Donkel then filed the expansion application on February 27, 2026. Alaska News said the unit was formed in 2022 and staked out about 52,600 acres of state land.

Point Thomson has long sat inside North Slope gas politics. Alaska Division of Oil and Gas records place the field about 60 miles east of Prudhoe Bay, and archival material says the broader Point Thomson unit area is roughly 117,000 acres. State records say leases there were acquired starting in 1965, oil was first discovered in 1975 and the Point Thomson Unit was formed in 1977 after the PTU-1 well found hydrocarbons in the Thomson sand. Another archival summary says 14 wells have penetrated that interval.

That history gives weight to a seemingly narrow unit amendment. Moving three more tracts into the Greater Point Thomson Unit could strengthen Donkel’s hand over how future development is organized near the refuge boundary, and it could make a larger offshore footprint easier to assemble if the company moves beyond paperwork into field work. For North Slope communities that watch hunting access, industrial corridors and tax revenue, the practical question is not just who owns the leases, but how much room the project creates for roads, pads, pipelines and other surface facilities near sensitive ground.

The Point Thomson area already has a development record that reaches beyond exploration. Alaska Public Media reported that condensate production began in 2016, while commercial gas output would depend on a large liquefied natural gas system. Petroleum News reported that Hilcorp Alaska LLC became the operator in 2021 after ExxonMobil transferred operations. The same report said Donkel sought to add the three tracts after the state had previously found they did not show a hydrocarbon reservoir or accumulation.

The expansion request now moves through the state process that governs unit changes on Alaska’s North Slope. With ANWR’s border nearby, the filing places a Florida-based company inside one of the most sensitive decisions on the eastern edge of the North Slope, where lease boundaries can shape what gets built long before a single well is drilled.