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Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
February 2014

Vol. 19, No. 8 Week of February 23, 2014

Pioneer asks for Oooguruk expansion

Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska Inc. is asking the state to expand the Oooguruk unit to include three small and irregular leases in the center of the near-shore North Slope unit.

The Texas-based independent, which is in the process of selling its Alaska holdings, wants the state to add ADL 392113, ADL 392157 and ADL 392158 into the unit.

The expansion would add some 156 acres to the roughly 53,187-acre unit. The small acreage position represents all the un-unitized acreage Pioneer still holds in Alaska.

The three leases are surrounded by the unit, but not included in its boundaries. The company acquired the three leases in the lease sales of December 2011, several months after the state last expanded the boundaries of the Oooguruk unit, in August 2011.

The most recent expansion of Oooguruk added the Nuna prospect onto the southern end of the unit. Pioneer must decide by this summer whether to sanction a Nuna development.

Toward the end of last year, Pioneer announced plans to sell its stake in the Oooguruk unit to the privately held independent Caelus Energy Alaska LLC. The small Texas-based company has previous said it intends to start work on Nuna “pretty much immediately.”

The deal was announced in late October, but Pioneer filed the application and remains the operator and leaseholder listed in Alaska Department of Natural Resources filings.

The state is taking comments through March 17.

—Eric Lidji






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