Oil Patch Insider

Renaissance plans to bring jack-up to Cook Inlet next summer

A Cook Inlet independent hopes to bring a jack-up to Cook Inlet next summer.

In an Aug. 14 interview with Petroleum News, Renaissance Alaska LLC executive Mark Landt said his company has bids from two drilling contractors. “Both jack-ups are available for next summer. … We have five wells we’d like to drill, which is a season and a third for one jack-up. We’re looking for other companies with offshore wells to drill to rationalize the mobilization costs for a two-year program for one rig.”

One company that’s under the gun to get its offshore Corsair leases drilled before they expire is Forest Oil. But Forest recently entered into an agreement to sell its Alaska assets to Pacific Energy Resources Ltd. That sale is expected to close Aug. 24.

Landt says Pacific Energy is one company he’s hoping to pull into the program. Escopeta Oil with its offshore Kitchen prospects might be another.

And Landt said he’s re-started discussions with the State of Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas to see if the state will help with the mobilization costs of a jack-up, something former Gov. Frank Murkowski promised to do, but which did not materialize when he was in office.

Confident that he will be able to put a two-year program together, Landt said Renaissance is starting the permitting process for five wells in Renaissance’s Northern Lights and North Middle Ground Shoal offshore prospects.

Stay tuned….

—Kay Cashman