ConocoPhillips is considering drilling up to five exploration wells on the North Slope during the coming winter, company spokeswoman Amy Burnett told Petroleum News in a Sept. 12 email. The drilling plans are still subject to final budget and permit approvals, Burnett said.
Three of the wells would target a better definition of the oil potential in the greater Willow area in the northeastern National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. One well would target potential new resources southwest of the village of Nuiqsut. The fifth well is the Putu well, within the so-called Tofkat leases, a newly approved extension to the Colville River unit.
ConocoPhillips has also applied for permits for a seismic survey to be conducted in leases issued by the state in July, Burnett said. ConocoPhillips obtained those leases in the December 2016 lease sale. They lie immediately south of existing leased acreage, east of and adjacent to NPR-A and the Colville River.
The greater Willow area references the Willow oil discovery, the major discovery that ConocoPhillips announced in January. The discovery, in the Nanushuk formation, the focus of a major new North Slope oil play, could yield 300 million barrels of light 44 degree API oil, the company said. The discovery lies west and slightly north of the ConocoPhillips Mooses Tooth 2 development. If drilling in the Willow area proves the viability of development of the Willow prospect, the development would represent a logical step out from ConocoPhillips’ developments at Greater Mooses Tooth 1 and Greater Mooses Tooth 2 in NPR-A.
Moving west
Essentially, the company has been following a strategy of progressively moving out west from the Colville River delta area into NPR-A, building out the pipeline infrastructure, as necessary, to link the new developments back to the established infrastructure connecting to the Colville River unit and the Alpine oil field.
The proposed well southwest of Nuiqsut is presumably targeting another prospect relatively near that existing Colville River unit oil infrastructure.
The drilling of the Putu well, close to Nuiqsut, in the coming winter forms a key ConocoPhillips commitment, as part of an August approval by the state of the expansion of the Colville River unit to include the Tofkat leases, on the southeast corner of the unit. ConocoPhillips had originally hoped to drill the well last winter but ended up postponing the drilling, following discussions with community leaders from Nuiqsut. Arctic Slope Regional Corp., the Native regional corporation for the North Slope, has a joint interest with the state in the Tofkat leases.
The planned drilling of the Putu well is of great interest, given that the drilling in 2008 of the Tofkat No. 1 well and its sidetracks by Brooks Range Petroleum in the Tofkat leases indicated the presence of oil in several horizons, including rocks of the Nanushuk formation.
