ConocoPhillips Co. has staked nine wells in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
ConocoPhillips staked the Flattop No. 1 and No. 2 well locations in the Mooses Tooth unit and the Cassin No. 1, 3, 3A, 5, 6, 8 and 8A well locations in the Bear Tooth unit.
The notices, published by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in September, show where ConocoPhillips is interested in drilling and how many wells it might drill. But because ConocoPhillips must approve drilling plans internally and with its partner Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and because the company must also get state and federal permits before beginning any work, the notices are not a measure of actual drilling plans.
“We have not announced any firm plans for NPR-A exploration,” ConocoPhillips told Petroleum News on Oct. 3. “Filing notice of staking (NOS) forms is a routine action to provide flexibility as we evaluate and try to obtain regulatory approvals for possible activity in those areas, but it is not a given that anything will move forward.”
Extension at Cassin
The nine locations target prospects ConocoPhillips eyed in previous drilling programs.
In the environmental assessment for its 2006-11 drilling program in NPR-A, ConocoPhillips staked three Cassin well locations. And ConocoPhillips included one Cassin location in its 2007-12 program but never actually drilled any of those wells.
Since then, ConocoPhillips formed the Bear Tooth unit around the Cassin area leases.
The Bear Tooth unit sits to the southeast of Teshekpuk Lake.
The seven Cassin locations are staked on four leases in the middle of the unit. Cassin No. 1 and No. 3 are staked on AA081754, Cassin No. 3A and No. 6 are staked on AA081833, Cassin No. 5 is staked on AA81824 and Cassin No. 8 and 8A are staked on AA81747.
The U.S. Navy and Husky Oil Corp. drilled the West Fish Creek No. 1 well on what is now AA081824 to 11,427 feet in 1977, encountering oil and natural gas shows.
The U.S. Navy drilled the Fish Creek No. 1 well some three miles to the west in 1949, on what is now AA081822. The well reached a total vertical depth of 7,020 feet and also encountered oil and gas shows. ConocoPhillips drilled the Scout No. 1 exploration well three miles to the south in 2004 on AA081857, but has not yet released drilling results.
Wells required to hold units
The Bear Tooth unit agreement, approved in 2009, required ConocoPhillips to drill a well in Unit Area A by June 1, 2012, to evaluate the sandstone encountered in the West Fish Creek No. 1 well. Unit Area A includes the seven recently staked Cassin well locations.
The agreement also required ConocoPhillips to test the Scout No. 1 well by June 1, 2012.
In June 2011, the BLM granted a one-year extension to those deadlines, the federal agency told Petroleum News. The BLM granted the request because ConocoPhillips showed “diligence” in evaluating the area, including drilling the Scout No. 1 well, reprocessing seismic information in 2009 and refining hydrocarbon prospects in 2010.
ConocoPhillips “has established that producible hydrocarbons have been encountered in the Scout No. 1 well sufficient to demonstrate that a prudent operator would maintain the lease for future development,” the BLM wrote in its decision to extend the unit terms.
Mooses Tooth expansion
ConocoPhillips previously staked a Flattop No. 1 well in 2008, but never drilled the well.
The newly proposed wells would be on leases on the eastern edge of the Mooses Tooth unit. ConocoPhillips staked Flattop No. 1 on AA087896 and Flattop No. 2 on AA081796.
All three Flattop locations — the earlier staking as well as the two recent stakings — are on leases added to the unit through an expansion in 2009. As part of the expansion, ConocoPhillips must drill a well within the additional leases by the third quarter of 2015.
The expansion covers an unexplored area with ARCO’s Clover A well to the east, ConocoPhillips’ Spark and Rendezvous prospects to the west, Phillips’ Mitre No. 1 well and Lookout prospect to the north and ConocoPhillips’ Pioneer No. 1 well to the south.
—A copyrighted oil and gas lease map from Mapmakers Alaska was a research tool used in preparing this story.
—Eric Lidji
