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Anadarko permitting four gas prospects Unprecedented search for gas expanding to cover 80 miles of Native, federal and state land in the foothills between now and 2013 Eric Lidji Petroleum News
The search for gas in the foothills of the Brooks Range continues to expand.
Anadarko Petroleum recently began permitting a four-year exploration program covering four different prospects spread across an 80-mile swath of Native, federal and state lands.
The large independent oil and gas company previously outlined a three-well exploration program in the region for this coming winter, but in filings made public on Oct. 20, Anadarko unveiled plans to drill as many as 11 wells between now and early 2013.
The program covers the Gubik and Chandler prospects where Anadarko drilled exploration wells this year, the Wolf Creek prospect where it plans to drill this winter, and the new Tsavorite prospect farther into the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
Anadarko is the operator on the program, with partners Petro-Canada and BG.
The program is the first in northern Alaska to specifically target natural gas.
Currently, no pipeline infrastructure exists to carry northern natural gas to market, but two companies have competing proposals to build a large-diameter natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to Canada, while a local utility is considering a smaller gas pipeline from Anadarko prospects into the population center of Southcentral Alaska.
Permitting two programs The permitting covers two interconnected drilling programs, one on Native lands east of Umiat and the other on federal lands across the Colville River in NPR-A. The company also plans to use a large corridor of state lands and waters for road construction.
Anadarko is proposing eight well locations in NPR-A, split between the Wolf Creek and Tsavorite prospects on leases the companies picked up in a 2006 federal lease sale.
Anadarko previously staked three Wolf Creek locations, all on AA-086604, around 30 miles west of Umiat. The company is now proposing, but has yet to stake, five Tsavorite locations on AA-086615, AA-086616 and AA-086617, around 60 miles west of Umiat.
The company is still proposing several wells at the Gubik and Chandler prospects on Arctic Slope Regional Corp. land around 20 miles east of Umiat. The proposed locations include Chandler No. 1, started earlier this year but left uncompleted, and two possible locations for Gubik No. 4, a follow up to the Gubik No. 3 well drilled earlier this year.
More than 150 miles of roads To support those two programs, Anadarko plans to build more than 150 miles of ice and snow roads starting at Drill Site 2P in the Kuparuk River unit and running to the foothills of the Brooks Range, where the road will branch to access the four different prospects.
The ice roads will be around 35 feet wide, designed to handle regular oilfield vehicles, while the snow roads will be much wider to handle specialty equipment like Rolligons and Steigers. Some snow roads could be converted to ice roads during the drilling season.
To aid construction efforts over the course of the program, Anadarko plans to build as many as six staging areas along the proposed network of temporary roads. Each staging area would be a 3,600 square foot ice pad with sleeping quarters and storage areas.
The six proposed staging areas would be at Drill Site 2P, at Shirukak Lake, along the Anaktuvuk River, between the Gubik and Chandler, in lease AA-086603 to support Wolf Creek operations and near Watermelon Lake to support Tsavorite operations.
The company will also use existing infrastructure at Umiat and plans to build 2,500-foot long ice runways near several staging areas to help handle shipments along the route.
Anadarko plans to use the Nabors rig 105 for wells at the Gubik and Chandler prospects, and the Doyon Arctic Fox for wells at the Wolf Creek and Tsavorite prospects.
As previously reported, Anadarko plans to use those two rigs to drill three wells this winter: completing Chandler No. 1 and starting Gubik No. 4 and Wolf Creek No. 4.
Tsavorite follows Titaluk The search for gas in the foothills dates back to frontier exploration wells drilled by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Navy in the years after World War II.
During that time, crews working for the two federal agencies drilled dozens of test wells throughout NPR-A, known at the time as Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4. Those wells included Gubik No. 1, Gubik. No 2 and the first three Wolf Creek wells.
The five Tsavorite well locations proposed by Anadarko surround the Titaluk No. 1 well drilled by USGS in the spring of 1951 to a depth of 4,020 feet. The well collected samples from the Ninaluk, Chandler, Grandstand and Topagoruk formations.
Although Titaluk No. 1 found both gas and oil in the Grandstand formation, a USGS analysis at the time called the tests “poor,” saying “the sands are too thin and are lacking in permeability to have much merit as reservoirs of oil and gas.”
The agencies also drilled the Knifeblade No. 1 and No. 2 wells a few miles west of Titaluk to test the Chandler and Grandstand formations. The wells both reached depths of 1,805 feet, but despite the faint presence of gas, neither found “good oil and gas shows.”
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