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BRPC proposing Putu unit near Nuiqsut Local JV offering to drill at least five exploration wells over the next decade to follow up on a 2008 oil discovery in region Eric Lidji For Petroleum News
Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. is proposing to form the Putu unit, a 39,993-acre unit covering 28 leases on state and Native land on the Alaska North Slope, near Nuiqsut.
Because of the unique land ownership issues in the area south of the Colville River unit, BRPC is asking both the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and Arctic Slope Regional Corp., the Alaska Native corporation for the North Slope, to approve the unit.
Under a proposed unit agreement sent to state officials in March, BRPC and its partners propose drilling at least five wells in three exploration blocks at the unit over the next decade. If the companies fail to meet drilling deadlines, the unit would terminate.
BRPC is proposing a five-year term that could be extended for another five years.
BRPC operates in Alaska on behalf of its parent company, Kansas-based Alaska Venture Capital Group LLC, as well as three joint venture companies: Brooks Range Development Corp., Ramshorn Investments Inc. and TG World Energy Inc.
A decade of prospecting Previously known as the Titania prospect, BRPC began prospecting Tofkat in 2002.
The company significantly expanded its holdings in the area over the following decade through acquisitions at five state areawide lease sales, a private land deal and a surface access agreement negotiated with Kuukpik Corp., a Native corporation in the region, in 2007.
In its application, the local independent said it has spent “well over” $25 million to date exploring the region. Those efforts include drilling the Tofkat No. 1 well and two sidetracks in the winter of 2008 and acquiring more than 200 square miles of 3-D seismic.
The wells yielded favorable results. The companies took 10 oil samples from four different sandstone reservoirs and found six feet of net pay in the Kuparuk formation, the deepest zone tested. The sidetracks helped determine the edges of the Tofkat reservoir.
Colville a crowded fairway BRPC and its partners have significant holdings in the Colville River area.
Putu is just west of the Southern Miluveach unit that BRPC proposed earlier this year.
The Division of Oil and Gas is still reviewing the application, but BRPC proposed a 56,460-acre unit to cover its North Tarn prospect west of the Kuparuk River unit.
Despite their proximity on a map, the two units are not naturals for joint development because 10 miles and the Colville River separate one from the other, Jim Winegarner, vice president of land and external affairs for BRPC, told Petroleum News in January.
BRPC also operates the Beechey Point unit in Gwydyr Bay, the Slugger prospect south of the Point Thomson and Badami units and more than 100,000 acres west of Kuparuk believed to overlay two, possibly three, world class North Slope source rocks.
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