ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. Pres. Kevin Meyers has provided names and general locations for the five western North Slope satellites the company is proposing: Spark, Lookout, Alpine West, Colville Delta North (Fiord) and Colville Delta South (Nanuq). Meyers discussed the project briefly at the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce today and said the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bureau of Land Management last week for an environmental impact statement for the satellites, which will be produced through the company's Alpine facilities at the Colville River unit west of National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
The EIS for the satellites is part of the company's 2003 plans.
Meyers said the ConocoPhillips also plans to sanction a new drill pad for West Sak and begin work on Alpine capacity expansion. The company's capital budget for 2003, he said, will be $640 million, $60 million of which will go to the Alpine ACX-1 capacity expansion project, phase one of Alpine expansion.
Also in the 2003 budget is a 3-D seismic program in the Alpine area and participation in four to six exploration wells, including the EnCana-operated McCovey well which has already been spud north of Prudhoe Bay, Puviaq in NPR-A and Oberon on state land (both in partnership with Anadarko Petroleum Corp.), and a well at the Cosmopolitan prospect on the Kenai Peninsula.
Meyers said that while the company has averaged nine to 10 exploration wells over the last couple of years, and will do only four to six this year, many of this year's locations are fairly remote and hence more costly. It is, he said, a pretty average program for the company on a cost basis.
In development drilling, Meyers said ConocoPhillips would participate in 60-70 penetrations at Prudhoe Bay (a five rig program), 10-15 wells at the Kuparuk River unit (a two-rig program) and 15-20 wells at Alpine (a one-rig program).
In Cook Inlet, the company will re-complete three Tyonek Deep wells as gas producers.
The new West Sak drill pad proposed for West Sak development, the 1J, would be sanctioned this year and built in subsequent years, Meyers said.
