Oooguruk expansion application complete

Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska’s application for a second expansion of the Oooguruk unit on Alaska’s North Slope is now complete, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas said in early May; comments on the expansion are due by June 16.

Pioneer originally applied to add five leases to the unit.

The application deemed complete by the state on May 2 is for the addition of four leases, some 9,951 acres.

The four leases in the expansion area (ADL 390505, ADL 390697, ADL 390434 and ADL 390506) form a block adjacent to the existing unit on the southwest.

ADL 390504, the lease Pioneer dropped from the expansion request, juts off the northwest corner of the proposed expansion block.

Oooguruk is northwest of the Kuparuk River unit and west of the Nikaitchuq unit.

Pioneer said the oil and gas leases within the proposed unit area are largely controlled by Pioneer and Eni Petroleum Co.

The unit expansion is related to development of the Torok reservoir, part of which will be developed from the offshore Oooguruk drill site and part of which would be developed from onshore drill sites to be built at what the companies are calling the Nuna project.

—Kristen Nelson