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THE EXPLORERS 2006 - Eni plans to drill North Slope wells Italian major has formed two units, picked up 11 more leases since buying out Armstrong in mid-2005 Kay Cashman Petroleum News
Eni Petroleum, which is the U.S. E&P affiliate of Italy’s Eni SpA, picked up its first oil and gas leases in Alaska in late August 2005.
Purchased from Armstrong Alaska, the leases consisted of 341,500 gross (273,000 net) acres, part of 104 leases onshore and offshore the North Slope in state and federal waters.
At that time Eni said the reserves were “expected to exceed 170 million barrels.”
The deal with Armstrong included leases with 100 percent ownership, as well as Armstrong’s minority working interests with Pioneer Natural Resources and Kerr-McGee (now part of Anadarko Petroleum), including ownership in the Oooguruk and Nikaitchuq discoveries.
The company went ahead in late 2005 and formed a unit at its Rock Flour prospect and opened an Anchorage office, selecting Chester (Chet) Paris to manage its Alaska operations.
Paris’ most recent work history included a stint with Armstrong on its geoscience team that put together the independent’s lease acquisitions in Alaska.
He also worked for ARCO Alaska and was one of the founding partners of Petrotechnical Resources of Alaska (PRA) in 1997, leaving to work for BP, and then Armstrong.
Eni said Paris would report to its Houston office, which manages the company’s E&P operations in the Gulf of Mexico and will also oversee its Alaska operations. Paris would specifically report to Giuseppe Valenti, senior vice-president exploration.
Strong interest in Beaufort Shortly after Eni entered Alaska it indicated an interest in partnering with Shell in a Beaufort Sea 3-D seismic survey.
Conducted internal evaluation
Eni said it acquired leases in Alaska after conducting an internal evaluation and regional studies that showed the North Slope and adjacent Beaufort Sea as areas with exploration potential for new oil and gas finds. It said its emphasis in Alaska would be of consistent growth, and that it was particularly interested in the Beaufort Sea and adjacent Chukchi Sea.
In March 2006, Eni acquired more onshore North Slope acreage, bidding $5.62 million at a state areawide lease sale for a block of 11 tracts southeast of Kuparuk and southwest of the Prudhoe Bay unit in an area near Rock Flour.
Eni had the highest bid in that sale, bidding $1,158,220.89 on tract 471.
A state official at the sale said Eni was obviously consolidating its central North Slope lease position where the company appeared to be targeting Brookian plays — the lower Cretaceous unconformity at the base of the Brookian sequence lies at a depth of around 10,000 feet in the area of the Eni leases.
The nearby State Pipeline No. 1 well revealed some interesting Brookian Cretaceous sands, state geologist Paul Decker said at the time.
In 2005 when Eni entered Alaska it said it was open to expanding its northern Alaska asset position to other parts of the state, but as of October 2006 there is no indication the company has purchased acreage south of the Brooks Range.
Up to four exploration wells in winter 2006-07 The 10,843-acre Rock Flour unit, which is adjacent to the eastern boundary of Kuparuk and just a few miles west of Prudhoe, consists of five leases that are 100 percent owned by Eni. Its plan of operations runs through June 1, 2010, and includes three exploration wells.
In the plan Eni committed to “complete seismic purchase and processing” and “drill a well prior to June 1, 2007,” or the unit will terminate and Eni will make a lease delay payment of $10,814 on June 1, 2006.
The first well will penetrate the West Sak/Schrader, Ugnu or Kuparuk formation, or the unit will terminate and a lease delay payment of $21,953 will be due.
By June 1, 2008, Eni has to complete “additional seismic, reservoir, and geologic studies,” or the unit will terminate and a lease delay payment of $11,473 will be due.
According to the plan, a second exploration well, with the same formation objectives, has to be completed by June 1, 2009, or the unit will terminate and Eni will have to pay a lease delay payment of $23,289.
And a third exploratory well has to be completed by June 1, 2010, or the unit will terminate with a lease delay payment of $12,171.
But in October 2006 Eni filed permitting paperwork to drill as many as four new exploration wells into its state leases south and east of Kuparuk during the winter of 2006-07.
New prospect area named Two or three of the four wells will be drilled in the Rock Flour prospect area and one well will be drilled in the new Maggiore prospect area, which (boundary to boundary) is about four miles south of Rock Flour.
Indications are Eni will apply to the state for a unit at Maggiore, but no paperwork was available as of Oct. 20, 2006.
The wells will be drilled from ice pads connected to the KRU Pad MP1 by approximately 26 miles of ice road, Eni said in the plan of operations it submitted to state agencies.
The ice pads will be approximately 400 feet by 400 feet and Eni will use Nabors 27E rig to drill the wells.
“Current plans are to complete all new geologic penetrations on all wells prior to
April 7, 2006. Well evaluations (testing) may be performed on any of the wells and may be conducted after this date, but prior to breakup,” Eni said, giving the following
information on well locations by latitude and longitude:
• Rock Flour 2 70º 17.06’ N 149º 22.38’W
• Maggiore 1 70º 0.51’ N 149º 18.15’W
• Rock Flour 3 70º 11.50’ N 149º 23.81’W
• Rock Flour 4 70º 15.84’ N 149º 23.61’W
The company said the wells would be drilled in the above sequence.
“It is anticipated that the first three wells will be drilled during this coming winter season, and the final well Rock Flour Well No. 4 may or may not be drilled, depending on timing and results of previous wells,” Eni said in its plan.
Heading southwest from KRU Pad MP1 it’s about two miles to Rock Flour No. 2.
The ice road will split about one mile south of MP1 and go another three miles south to reach the Rock Flour No. 4.
From there it will continue another six miles south to the location of Rock Flour No. 3 where it’s another 15 miles to reach Maggiore No. 1 on ADL 390660.
Eni has told permitting agencies it will name its Alaska oil and gas prospects after Italian lakes.
Rock Flour was named by Armstrong, But the new Maggiore prospect was named by Eni. Lake Maggiore is Italy’s second biggest lake.
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