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

Vol. 14, No. 46 Week of November 15, 2009

The Explorers 2009: Anadarko Petroleum

While most independents come to Alaska looking for smaller fields passed over by the majors, Anadarko Petroleum arrived in the early 1990s looking for big “anchors.” The Texas company formed partnerships with much bigger players, offering fresh ideas in return for first-hand Arctic experience. The most successful of those partnerships has been with ConocoPhillips and its predecessors. Anadarko and Phillips Alaska brought the Alpine field online in 2000 and have since developed satellites of the oil field west of Kuparuk. Anadarko and ConocoPhillips are now partnering to develop Greater Mooses Tooth, the first unit in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Anadarko is the largest leaseholder in Alaska, with some 4.7 million acres under lease.

Over the past two decades, Anadarko has pursued other targets with other partners with varying success. Anadarko found gas in Cook Inlet, but sold the acreage. The company hit pay with the Altamura No. 1 wildcat, but abandoned the well after encountering low permeability. More recently, Anadarko drilled, but then relinquished, the Jacob’s Ladder unit, a geologically unique prospect southeast of Prudhoe Bay.

Anadarko is now focused on exploring for natural gas in the Gubik Complex in the western foothills of the Brooks Range. In early 2008, Anadarko and two partners finished Gubik No. 3 and started the Chandler No. 1. Gubik No. 3 tested at a rate of 15 million cubic feet per day. In early 2009, Anadarko completed Chandler and drilled Gubik No. 4 and Wolf Creek No. 4. Petro-Canada, a partner in the program, said those three wells “all encountered natural gas.” The future of the program now depends in part on the spending plans of Suncor, the Canadian company acquiring Petro-Canada. According to Petroleum News sources, the partners will either run two-rigs this winter, or perform additional tests at Chandler.

Current exploration focus

Northern Alaska — central North Slope: continued exploration drilling with ConocoPhillips in the extreme northeast of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, seeking more satellite fields to hook into the Alpine field infrastructure.

Northern Alaska — Brooks Range foothills: exploration and delineation drilling around known gas fields in the Umiat area, around the eastern boundary of NPR-A.






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