Glacier Oil & Gas Corp. is returning to the Sabre prospect.
Through its subsidiary Cook Inlet Energy LLC, the independent recently applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for permission to drill the offshore Sabre No. 1 exploration well off the coast of the west side of Cook Inlet near Trading Bay.
The company is proposing to use the Spartan 151 jack-up rig for the program. The program is scheduled to begin in late March or early April and last some 70 days.
Cook Inlet Energy acquired a 70 percent interest the Sabre and nearby Sword prospects in its initial acquisition of Alaska properties and farmed-in the remaining 30 percent from Hilcorp Alaska LLC in September 2012. A former executive had touted estimates as high as 20 million barrels of oil and 14.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas for the prospects.
The company brought the Sword No. 1 well into production in November 2013 and began discussing plans to either develop additional intervals or drill a second well.
Instead, Cook Inlet Energy began considering the Sabre prospect. The company described the project as a potential six-well development with the first extended reach well costing between $25 million and $30 million. By late 2014, the company was “evaluating joint venture offers for participation in the project,” to defray the cost.
Although the program never came to fruition, the company incorporated the Sword and Sabre prospects into the boundaries of the West McArthur River unit in 2015.
Cook Inlet Energy continued to include both prospects as potential near-term projects in its unit plans of operation for West McArthur River. A plan from early 2014 envisioned a Sword No. 2 and Sabre No. 1 well by April 2016. A plan from early 2015 pushed the Sword well into 2017 and said the Sabre well was still being evaluated. As an extended-reach well, Sabre conflicted with a new strategy of “developing lower risk targets.” The company expected to delay exploration until it had finished drilling proven prospects.
In a late January 2016 plan of development for West McArthur River, the company said it would drill a second Sword well by April 30, 2018, “if appropriate to increase recovery, and if economic conditions warrant.” The company reiterates its plans to postpone work at the Sabre prospect until it finished developing proven prospects.
Glacier Oil & Gas
But in the months after filing that plan of development, former Cook Inlet Energy parent company Miller Energy Resources Ltd. emerged from bankruptcy as Glacier Oil & Gas.
Glacier has been reviewing its entire Alaska portfolio over the past year. The company relinquished some of the longer-term prospects in its portfolio. With that work completed, the company now appears to be interested in resuming exploration activities.
The first sign of renewed interest came in May 2016 when Cook Inlet Energy amended its oil discharge prevention and contingency plan to add use of the Spartan 151 jack-up rig to drill the Sabre exploration well in Trading Bay. The amendment also suggested a new strategy for Sabre, using a jack-up rig rather than extended reach wells.
