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April 2017

Vol. 22, No. 17 Week of April 23, 2017

Savant planning Badami exploration

One-well Starfish exploration program would target a newly identified prospect at the unit; Mikkelsen remains stalled

Eric Lidji

For Petroleum News

The Glacier Oil & Gas Corp. subsidiary Savant Alaska LLC is planning to drill an exploration well next winter in a newly identified prospect at the Badami unit.

The company is currently planning to use Rig 36 or a similar rig to drill a well in the Starfish prospect at the eastern North Slope unit, according to a plan of development.

Starfish is one of “several new target ‘pods’ of interest” that the company identified through a recent geologic and geophysical review of the Badami and Killian sands.

The Starfish prospect is located “to the southwest of the current development area within the Badami Sands” participating area, according to a description included in the 2017 plan of development for the unit, filed with the state Division of Oil and Gas on April 13.

The Badami unit sits along the coast of Mikkelsen Bay between the Liberty unit to the west and the Point Thomson unit to the east. The Badami Sands participating area is in the middle of the unit, with most of its area offshore and a small portion along the coast. The majority of the development drilling to date has been alongside the coast or just offshore.

The company also said it is considering infill drilling at Badami and additional exploration wells at new prospects outside of the Badami Sands participating area.

The Starfish program and the additional development and exploration drilling have yet to be sanctioned and are dependent on “economic conditions,” according to the company.

The Starfish program would be the first exploration drilling at Badami since Miller Energy Resources Ltd. emerged from bankruptcy protection as Glacier in early 2016.

Glacier initially focused on development work at its properties, but is permitting the Sabre exploration well at its West McArthur River unit, on the west side of Cook Inlet.

Savant operates the Badami unit. ASRC Exploration holds a minority interest.

Mikkelsen prospect

A second exploration program at Badami remains stalled.

Savant asked the state in late 2012 to expand the unit to include seven exploration leases to the east. In mid-March 2013, the state Division of Oil and Gas only agreed to include two of those leases into the unit. In early April 2013, the company appealed the matter to the Department of Natural Resources, where the matter has remained for four years.

A few months later, in mid-August 2013, the company also filed a request for a stay of certain requirements under its plan of exploration, which also remains unresolved.

The plan of exploration called for Savant to drill an exploration well through the Canning formation and into the Hue Shale to evaluate the potential of the Killian interval as previously encountered in the East Mikkelsen Bay No. 1 well. Although the company and state officials have met about the matter, according to Glacier it remains unresolved.






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