Pioneer’s Storm well a bust

Pioneer Natural Resources said March 8 that Hailstorm No. 1, its first exploration well of the season on Alaska’s North Slope, was a bust.

The first of three exploration wells the Dallas-independent is drilling in northern Alaska this year, Hailstorm No. 1 is part of the Hailstorm prospect within the newly formed 16,500 acre NE Storm unit (see related story on page 1 of this issue). ConocoPhillips and Pioneer each have a 50 percent working interest in the unit, which consists of seven state oil and gas leases south of Prudhoe Bay and southeast of the Kuparuk River unit.

NE Storm is part of a 130,000 acre area called Storms Lead where Pioneer is partnering with ConocoPhillips and where the companies shot a 3-D seismic survey in the winter of 2004-05.

In unit paperwork filed with the State of Alaska, the Hailstorm prospect was identified on lease ADL 390472. Pioneer told the state the first NE Storm exploration well would be on that lease; the second would be on ADL 389096, ADL 389097 or ADL 390492.

The NE Storm unit application included a proposed four-year plan of exploration with two wells, one to be drilled this winter and the other no later than the winter of 2007-08.

In its unit exploration plan, Pioneer said “prospective intervals” in the unit “may include but are not limited to the Ivishak formation.”

—Kay Cashman