|
Marathon expects reduced CI drilling Planning four to six wells each year through 2012; planning to finally spud at Sunrise prospect in Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Eric Lidji For Petroleum News
Marathon Oil doesn’t expect to ramp up drilling in Cook Inlet this year after a reduction in 2009, but also isn’t planning to continue scaling back in the near term and is currently planning an exploration well at its much-considered Sunrise prospect.
The Houston-based major plans to drill between four and six wells each year between 2010 and 2012, according to a presentation made to analysts toward the end of last year.
Marathon is one of the most active companies in Cook Inlet. The company has ownership stakes in 10 fields, many of which it operates or owns outright.
Through the middle years of the 2000s, the company regularly drilled 10 or more wells each year in Cook Inlet, but in March 2009, in response to the economic downturn, the company announced a “roughly a 40 to 60 percent” reduction in drilling for the year.
In its November presentation to analysts, Marathon said it drilled six Cook Inlet wells in 2009. Those reduced drilling levels will now most likely continue until at least 2012.
Sunrise appears to be set Despite that, Marathon is planning to explore its Sunrise prospect this winter.
The prospect is on Cook Inlet Region Inc. land in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, east of the Swanson River oil field. (In fact, Sunrise was commonly known in the past as East Swanson.)
On Dec. 30, 2009, the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission gave Marathon permits for a Sunrise LK2 and Sunrise LK 2RD wells, both for the same location.
In mid-January, the Peninsula Clarion reported that Marathon had a rig ready at Sunrise and expected to spud the well shortly. When Petroleum News asked about the status of the well on Feb. 8, the company did not say whether or not it had spud the well yet.
“It is a tight well,” said Carrie Lockhart, Marathon’s Alaska asset team production manager, in the Clarion’s report of the Industry Outlook Forum. “We probably won’t be saying a whole lot about it until we fully evaluate it, but cross your fingers.”
The Clarion also reported Lockhart as saying, “Do I think there are going to be 10 or 15 wells in Cook Inlet in the near future? I don’t think so because the market doesn’t demand that. The local utility market is too small to enable growth across the inlet.”
Marathon estimated it produced around 115 million cubic feet of natural gas per day net in 2009. The company said it realized an average price of $6.17 per thousand cubic feet.
On Dec. 31, 2009, the AOGCC also gave Marathon a permit for the Ninilchik Unit Paxton 3 well, listed as a development well. The Ninilchik unit is along the northern coast of the Kenai Peninsula, between the cities of Ninilchik and Clam Gulch.
| 