Canada's Yukon Territory closed its third call for exploration bids Jan. 31. Yukon said today that Hunt Oil Co. of Canada Inc. submitted the winning bid. The company proposes to spend $1.16 million doing exploratory work on the parcel in the Peal Plateau north and west of the Peel River in northeastern Yukon Territory.
Eighteen wells were drilled in the Peel Plateau in the 1960s and 1970s under federal management. This is the first offering in the area since the Yukon Territory took control of oil and gas resources in 1998.
Hunt Oil Co. of Canada is a subsidiary of privately held Hunt Oil Co. of Dallas, Texas.
The parcel is in the Peel Plateau near 66 degrees north latitude and 134 degrees west longitude, just south of the Arctic Circle.
A resource assessment of the Peel Plateau Basin by the National Energy Board in 1999, updated in 2000, identified the potential for 2.29 trillion cubic feet of gas and 21.3 million barrels of oil.
One of the 18 wells drill in the area, the Shell Peel River I-21, lies abandoned within the parcel; the other wells were drilled within a 100-kilometre radius of the parcel.
