The Australian independent recently outlined a program calling for approximately 13 drilling pads to accommodate 150 wells with drilling to begin as early as 2021. The program is twice as large as and would take several years longer than a previous version.

The company has drilled two exploration wells in recent years at the known oil field in the foothills of the Brooks Range Mountains and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

Umiat No. 18 in early 2013 took a vertical core sample. Umiat No. 23H in early 2014 followed up with the first horizontal well ever drilled at the remote field. A subsequent flow test yielded a sustained rate of 250 barrels per day of 38.5 degree API gravity crude oil.

Those wells formed the foundation for reservoir modeling efforts currently under way.

The company is envisioning a drilling program with wells laid out of a 40-acre pattern, with wells every 450 feet and horizontal laterals measuring approximately 3,000 feet.

The program outline is the most detailed development proposal yet from Linc and is significantly larger than ideas the company presented seven months ago. In an annual report from late October 2014, after both wells were drilled, the company anticipated "that the initial development of Umiat could include the drilling of up to 70 wells."

- ERIC LIDJI