Kerr-McGee said today that it has encountered “high-quality hydrocarbons” at its first Nikaitchuq exploration well in the Spy Island area off Alaska’s North Slope.
This is the Northwest Milne Point prospect assembled by Denver, Colo.-based Armstrong Oil and Gas, which last year brought in Oklahoma City-based Kerr-McGee as 70 percent working interest owner and partner.
Rick Buterbaugh, Kerr-McGee’s vice president of investor relations, said in an interim first-quarter conference call that the company “encountered high-quality hydrocarbons from the initial Nikaitchuq well.
“We are currently testing this well, which is expected to finish this week,” he said.
Buterbaugh said the company was “encouraged by these results, which confirm hydrocarbons nearly five miles to the northwest of a well that encountered pay from the same intervals on this prospect.”
The company is currently drilling the Nikaitchuq No. 2, he said, with an expected bottom hole some 9,000 feet from the initial well.
“This well,” he said, “may test the down-dip limit of the reservoir.”
Drilling at the No. 2 well is expected to be finished “within the week,” he said.
The Nikaitchuq No. 1 was permitted from a surface in section 16-township 14 north-range 9 east, Umiat Meridian, to a bottom hole in section 9-T14N-R9E, UM.
The No. 2 was permitted from a surface in 22-T14N-R9E, UM, to a bottom hole in 15-T14N-R9E, UM.
