Petroleum News sources said Feb. 22 that Eni has purchased Anadarko Petroleum’s 70 percent interest in the Nikaitchuq prospect, making Eni 100 percent owner in the Alaska Beaufort Sea unit.
State of Alaska oil and gas lease records show that an assignment of 20 leases encompassing both the Nikaitchuq unit and adjacent Tuvaaq unit from Anadarko to Eni was approved Feb. 14. Percentages vary but in each case 100 percent of Anadarko’s interest was bought out by Eni.
Sources also said that Milan, Eni headquarters, has approved development of Nikaitchuq with production to start as early as this fall.
Recent production tests at Nikaitchuq reportedly yielded more than 2,000 barrels of oil per day at 19.2 percent gravity.
Nikaitchuq was one of the prospects identified by Armstrong Alaska, which brought Kerr-McGee to Alaska as a majority partner in late 2004 in Nikaitchuq (and Tuvaaq) to explore the acreage. Last year Anadarko bought out Kerr-McGee, and Armstrong sold its North Slope interests to Eni in mid-2005.
Kerr-McGee said in 2006 that Nikaitchuq’s gross estimated resource range was 100 million to 200 million barrels of oil equivalent. The company said Nikaitchuq facilities would be built to handle a flow of 60,000 barrels per day.
Mega-major Eni is drilling its first exploration wells in Alaska this winter.
