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Anadarko spuds Gubik gas well Brooks Range sends rig to Tofkat, ready to test North Shore; Chevron spuds Smilodon; ConocoPhillips still building ice roads Eric Lidji Petroleum News
Considering the midseason weather troubles that delayed many companies exploring on the North Slope this year, February is starting out as easy as A-B-and-almost-C.
Anadarko Petroleum, Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. and Chevron all made steps on their exploration programs.
But ConocoPhillips is still building ice roads near the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
A: Anadarko spuds first gas well Anadarko spud the Gubik No. 3 well on Jan. 31 using Nabors rig 105.
Gubik No. 3 is in the foothills of the Brooks Range near the eastern boundary of NPR-A and is the first well to specifically target natural gas on the North Slope.
After finishing Gubik, Anadarko plans to move Nabors rig 105 to drill another natural gas well called Chandler No. 1 sometime this winter.
The two wells will be to different depths. Anadarko plans to drill Gubik to about 4,300 feet and Chandler to about 11,000 feet.
This winter, Anadarko also plans to finish the Jacob’s Ladder oil well southeast of Prudhoe Bay that it started drilling last year. The Akita 63 rig will be used at that prospect.
On Feb. 5, Anadarko announced plans to spend 15 percent of its 2008 capital budget on international and frontier projects, listing Alaska along with Brazil, Algeria and China as the key places for exploration work in the coming year.
B: BRPC sends rig to start Tofkat After finishing a redrill of the North Shore No. 1 well, Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. moved the Nabors rig 27E on Feb. 5 to start work on the Tofkat No. 1 well.
Tofkat No. 1 sits due east of the village of Nuiqsut.
The company hopes to spud Tofkat No. 1 around Feb. 12, according to Hillary McIntosh, manager of business development and external affairs for BRPC.
If Tofkat No. 1 is successful, BRPC also plans to drill a sidetrack well called Tofkat No. 1-A before heading east again to drill North Shore No. 3, a satellite of North Shore No. 1 in the area around Gwydyr Bay. The company plans to begin testing North Shore No. 1 the week of Feb. 10.
BRPC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Alaska Venture Capital Group, is running its winter exploration program on behalf of a joint venture with TG World Energy Inc., the Nabors subsidiary Ramshorn Investments Inc. and Bow Valley Alaska Corp.
C: Chevron spuds Smilodon Chevron spud the Smilodon 9-4-9 well on Feb. 2 and the company is currently running surface casing, according to the manager of public relations and communications, Roxanne Sinz.
Smilodon is one of several exploration wells Chevron has proposed to drill in the White Hill prospect located in the foothills of the Brooks Range just west of the Dalton Highway.
“Actual weather conditions and results will affect how many wells we drill, in what order, and when,” Sinz told Petroleum News in an e-mail.
Nabors Rig 106 is being used by Chevron at White Hills.
ConocoPhillips still building roads ConocoPhillips had not spud the Char No. 1 or Spark Down Dip No. 9, or re-entered the Rendezvous No. 2 wells as of Feb. 5.
Currently, ConocoPhillips is finishing up ice roads to Char and Rendezvous, according to spokeswoman Natalie Knox Lowman.
At the Meet Alaska energy conference on Jan. 25, ConocoPhillips Alaska President Jim Bowles said the company hoped to spud Char No. 1 and Spark DD No. 9 “sometime within the next week or so.”
If ConocoPhillips drills the Spark DD No. 9 well, it would likely satisfy the initial development obligations for the new Greater Mooses Tooth unit in NPR-A.
The company and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management made the agreement at the end of January to form the first federal oil and gas unit in NPR-A. As part of the agreement, ConocoPhillips is required to drill a test well within the next two years. (See related articles about the NPR-A unit in both this issue of Petroleum News, and in the Feb. 3 edition.)
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