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Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
January 2009

Vol. 14, No. 2 Week of January 11, 2009

Chevron gets second White Hills permit

The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has approved a second drilling permit for Chevron’s exploration venture in the White Hills prospect in the central North Slope.

On Dec. 22, AOGCC approved a permit for Chevron, through its subsidiary Unocal, to drill the Bluebuck 6-7-9 exploration well on state lease ADL 389182.

Bluebuck 6-7-9 is one of four new exploration well locations Chevron permitted earlier in 2008 in White Hills, after permitting 15 well locations at the prospect in previous years.

The White Hills prospect sits south of the Kuparuk River unit, around 30 miles west of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. The prospect stretches around 50 miles north to south.

This past winter, Chevron drilled three wells across that area using Nabors rig 106E. The company plans to use the rig again this year, but seems to be focusing its drilling efforts toward the northern end of the prospect, near the Panthera 28-6-9 well drilled last year.

Chevron also recently received a permit from the AOGCC to drill the Muskoxen 36-7-8 exploration well on state lease ADL 390941, also in the northern end of the prospect.

Chevron has said it is looking for both oil and gas at White Hills. While several previous wells drilled by other operators in the region have had oil shows, Chevron is planning several “relatively shallow” wells, which could signify a natural gas target.

“This is probably mostly gas, but it is an area where they could also find oil,” Marty Rutherford, deputy commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources, said at the “Energy in Alaska” conference hosted by Law Seminars International in Anchorage.

Chevron is partnering on the exploration program with the French oil company Total. As of Jan. 2, seasonal travel restriction remained in effect on state lands in the foothills of the Brooks Range, including the primary staging area for the White Hills venture.

—Eric Lidji






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