FEX to drill three NPR-A wells next winter
Talisman subsidiary FEX is moving ahead with plans for continued exploration drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska this winter.
“We will be drilling three to four wells this winter,” Barry Nelson, spokesman for Talisman, told Petroleum New on Aug. 1. Nelson declined to say which prospects the company would target.
Nelson said that the company will use two drilling rigs. One of those rigs will be the Nabors rig that has been stacked at Cape Simpson since last winter. Petroleum News has heard that the other rig will be the new Doyon/Akita Arctic Wolf rig.
In the winter of 2005/2006 FEX completed the Aklaq 2 well, south of Cape Simpson and west of the Ikpikpuk River, and drilled a sidetrack to that well. However, the company has not tested the well. Nelson said that weather problems had delayed the drilling.
Winegarner joins Brooks Range Petroleum
Jim Winegarner is joining Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. as vice president of land and external affairs, the company said Aug. 2. Winegarner will be in charge of oil and gas leasing, contract management and external and government affairs. He will also be part of the company’s management team, in which role he will provide strategic insight into exploration activities and long-range plans.
Winegarner has more than 25 years experience in the oil and gas industry, mainly with ARCO and ConocoPhillips in Alaska, Brooks Range Petroleum said. He was most recently a ConocoPhillips staff landsman and has extensive experience of North Slope leasing and permitting.
Wyden places hold on Myers nomination
Oregon News Online has reported that Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has placed a hold on Bush Administration nominees for Department of the Interior positions until “there is an acceptable way to fully fund county payments.” The payments in question fund rural schools, roads and county services across the nation. The original bill for the funding expires later this year.
Apparently Wyden’s hold impacts the nominations of John Ray Correll for Director of the Office of Surface Mining and Mark Myers of Director of the U.S. Geological Service. Myers resigned last year from his position as director of Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas.
Myers told Petroleum News Aug. 3 that he wasn’t aware of the hold although he had head a rumor that a block on his nomination was in the offing. Myers said that Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee unanimously passed his nomination.
NOTE: See stories in Aug. 6 issue of Petroleum News.
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