HOME PAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS, Print Editions, Newsletter PRODUCTS READ THE PETROLEUM NEWS ARCHIVE! ADVERTISING INFORMATION EVENTS PETROLEUM NEWS BAKKEN MINING NEWS

Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
December 2011

Vol. 16, No. 49 Week of December 04, 2011

BRPC plans 3 Mustang wells in new Southern Miluveach unit

A joint venture led by Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. could complete as many as four wells this winter at its North Tarn prospect on the central North Slope of Alaska.

In addition to re-entering a sidetrack started this past winter, the local independent operating arm of Kansas-based Alaska Venture Capital Group plans to drill as many as three wells to delineate the prospect on the western boundary of the Kuparuk River unit.

The Mustang exploration program would take place from the North Tarn ice pad that Brooks Range Petroleum plans to build in its newly formed the Southern Miluveach unit.

The company expects to use Nabors rig 7ES for the program.

Brooks Range Petroleum drilled the North Tarn No. 1 well this past winter and began drilling the North Tarn No. 1-A sidetrack on leases farmed-in from Eni Petroleum.

The company expects to begin construction soon on an ice road running approximately four miles from an existing gravel road in the Kuparuk River unit to the to-be-built North Tarn ice pad, and plans to mobilize its camp and drilling rig toward the end of the year.

In early January, Brooks Range Petroleum plans to spend some 15 days re-entering and completing North Tarn No. 1-A and another 30 days testing the sidetrack. The rig is scheduled to drill the Mustang No. 1, Mustang No. 2 and Mustang No. 3 wells between January and April and demobilize in May. The company is also planning summer studies.

The joint venture includes Brooks Range Development Corp., Calgary-based independent TG World Energy Corp. and Nabors subsidiary Ramshorn Investments Inc. (Editor’s note: In a deal that closed in early November, Ramshorn purchased TG World Energy’s Alaska acreage interest.)

Mounting the Mustang

The Mustang project is studying the potential of the Kuparuk Formation in the area.

North Tarn No. 1, drilled to 6,223 feet, identified an oil reservoir in the Kuparuk C sand. Brooks Range previously estimated that the Kuparuk Formation at North Tarn could contain 6 million barrels of oil, enough to make the play economic. The company also said North Tarn included a target in the shallower Brookian Formation that could hold 35 million barrels, but would be more difficult to produce because of complex geology.

Under the terms of the Southern Miluveach unit, Brooks Range must complete North Tarn No. 1-A, as well as two Mustang wells (or a Mustang well and a sidetrack) into the Kuparuk Formation by May 31, 2012. The working interest owners must also decide by Oct. 1, 2012 whether or not they will sanction a development program at Mustang.

Brooks Range recently got approval to form four units on state land in the central North Slope, all in the fairway between the Kuparuk River unit and the Colville River. From north to south those are the Southern Miluveach, Kachemach, Tofkat and Putu units.

—Eric Lidji






Petroleum News - Phone: 1-907 522-9469 - Fax: 1-907 522-9583
[email protected] --- http://www.petroleumnews.com ---
S U B S C R I B E

Copyright Petroleum Newspapers of Alaska, LLC (Petroleum News)(PNA)©2013 All rights reserved. The content of this article and web site may not be copied, replaced, distributed, published, displayed or transferred in any form or by any means except with the prior written permission of Petroleum Newspapers of Alaska, LLC (Petroleum News)(PNA). Copyright infringement is a violation of federal law subject to criminal and civil penalties.