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UltraStar to drill at Dewline in 2012 Local independent deferring follow up to exploration well drilled in early 2009; unit agreement allows company to wait until 2013 Eric Lidji For Petroleum News
UltraStar Exploration is waiting one more year to drill a follow up well at Dewline.
The local independent, led by Jim Weeks, drilled Dewline No. 1 in early 2009 to gauge primarily the oil, but also the natural gas potential of the area. Weeks told Petroleum News in August 2009 that he planned to drill a second Dewline well in early 2011.
“That’s been deferred to 2012,” Weeks told Petroleum News Sept. 29.
The additional year will give UltraStar a chance to finalize drilling plans, secure a rig and line up investors for the program. Weeks noted that it took longer than expected to get 3-D seismic and velocity data from BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil. He also noted that with blowout preventer equipment “under a microscope” in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill this summer, trying to hit a 2011 drill date felt like “pushing it too hard.”
Dewline sits north of the Prudhoe Bay unit and south of the Northstar unit. UltraStar formed the Dewline unit over its three leases in the area in the summer of 2009. The five-year unit agreement requires UltraStar to drill two exploratory wells to test the hydrocarbon potential of the Ivishak formation at the Dewline unit by May 31, 2013.
“Since we had the time, I thought we planned for first quarter 2012,” Weeks said.
Still planning directional That said, the delay doesn’t change UltraStar’s drilling plans.
The company still wants to drill North Dewline No. 1 as a directional well to an offshore target from an onshore pad, a 14,000 to 15,000-foot well with a 6,000-foot displacement.
Like Dewline No. 1, the new Dewline well would explore a target in the Ivishak formation. Weeks noted potential targets in the Sag River and Kuparuk formations on the leases (although Weeks called the Kuparuk formation in that part of the Slope “tricky”).
The main obstacle still to overcome is financial. “We’ve got all the science and mapping done,” Weeks said. “We’ve just got to get everything put together to solicit investors.”
Once UltraStar lines up financing, Weeks said the company would go shopping for a rig.
UltraStar drilled Dewline No. 1 vertically to 9,900 feet using the Akita-Doyon Arctic Wolf rig. Weeks hasn’t released drilling results, but said the well saw its target in the Ivishak formation. In August 2009, Weeks called it “a typical exploration well. Not a train wreck. We came pretty close to the operational amount we expected to spend.”
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