AOGCC issues permit for North Tarn well

The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission issued a permit on Feb. 16 for Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. to drill the North Tarn No. 1 exploration well. North Tarn No. 1 will likely be the only exploration well drilled on the North Slope this winter.

The Alaska-based independent plans to start drilling the 6,300-foot well in March from a site some two miles west of the Kuparuk River unit using Nabors rig 9ES.

North Tarn No. 1 will test targets in the Brookian formation and the deeper Kuparuk formation. The Brookian is the same formation producing at the Tarn satellite to the south, while the Kuparuk is the main formation producing at the Kuparuk River unit.

BRPC estimates that the Brookian reservoir could contain some 35 million barrels of oil and that the Kuparuk reservoir could contain an additional 6 million barrels of oil.

BRPC is the operating arm of the Kansas-based Alaska Venture Capital Group and operates a joint venture with partners TG World Energy and Ramshorn Investments.

—Eric Lidji