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Vol. 17, No. 47 Week of November 18, 2012
Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry

Cook Inlet explorers take next steps

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Apache spuds its first well in the basin while Buccaneer plans to move jack-up rig from Homer for winter drilling at Cosmopolitan

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

Two companies, both new to the Cook Inlet basin, are taking the next steps in their ventures to find and develop new oil and gas in the basin, company executives told the Resource Development Council’s annual Alaska Resources Conference on Nov. 14.

Apache Alaska Inc., the company that has been conducting a major 3-D seismic survey program across broad areas of the basin, has spud its first exploration well in the basin, near Tyonek, on the west side of the inlet, John Hendrix, general manager of Apache Alaska, told the conference.

“We spud our first well this morning at 7:44 in the morning — our first Apache Alaska drilling operation,” Hendrix said. Apache is primarily looking for oil in the basin, although the company also expects to find natural gas in the course of its exploration drilling.

Pushing oil production up to, say, 50,000 or 100,000 barrels per day would revolutionize the Cook Inlet, Hendrix said.

Apache’s well, the Kaldachabuna No. 2, is being drilled in Cook Inlet Region Inc. subsurface land by the Patterson Rig 191. This is a reservoir play that Apache wants to investigate, to assess whether this type of play is replicated in other prospects that Apache’s seismic reveals, Hendrix said.

Mark Landt, vice president, land and business development for Buccaneer Alaska, a subsidiary of Australian independent Buccaneer Energy, said that this winter Buccaneer is going to use the Endeavour jack-up rig that it has brought to the inlet to drill at Cosmopolitan, a known oil pool offshore Anchor Point in the southern Kenai Peninsula. There are estimated to be around 90 billion cubic feet of natural gas at Cosmopolitan, in addition to an estimated 44 million barrels of oil, Landt said.

The Endeavour rig is currently positioned at Homer in Kachemak Bay, undergoing some unanticipated repairs before being ready for service. Buccaneer anticipates moving the rig from Homer in about two weeks for drilling at Cosmopolitan, Landt said.

Buccaneer is in the process of drilling the no. 4 well in its producing Kenai Loop field at the City of Kenai and plans a further two to three wells there in 2013, Landt said. In 2013 Buccaneer also plans to drill an exploration well in each of its offshore Northwest Cook Inlet and Southern Cross units, and to shoot 3-D seismic and drill a well in its West Eagle prospect in the southern Kenai Peninsula. All told, the company anticipates drilling three to four onshore wells and three offshore wells in 2013, Landt said.

Apart from oil potential at Cosmopolitan and Southern Cross, Buccaneer’s current exploration interest is focused on natural gas, Landt said.

Landt said for funding its capital requirements Buccaneer has entered into a $30 million revolving credit facility. In addition, since entering the Cook Inlet gas business Buccaneer has raised $66 million in capital on the Australian stock exchange, he said.



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