Following a program last winter focused closer to existing infrastructure, ConocoPhillips plans to drill two exploration wells this winter in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
The wells, Grandview East and Pioneer 1, will be in the Mooses Tooth unit, formed this past January in the northeastern portion of the federally owned reserve, just west of the Colville River unit on Alaska’s North Slope.
“They’re to delineate some of our previously announced discoveries,” Michael Faust, an exploration manager with ConocoPhillips told Petroleum News on Sept. 26.
Faust said ConocoPhillips expects to drill the wells using Doyon rig 141.
The wells are currently in the proposal stage, awaiting both partner approval and the finalized companywide exploration budget, typically released each December.
ConocoPhillips previously permitted the two wells as part of a five-year exploration program filed with the Bureau of Land Management in late 2006. However, Faust said the company might choose to stake a new location for Grandview East.
Grandview East and Pioneer 1 build off the exploration program ConocoPhillips completed this past winter, which included drilling and testing the Spark DD-9 well and re-entering and testing the Rendezvous No. 2, both within Mooses Tooth.
The BLM, an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, oversees the NPR-A.
See full story in Oct. 5 issue of Petroleum News, available to subscribers online at noon, Friday, Oct. 3 at www.PetroleumNews.com
