Texas independent looks to drill new Cook Inlet leases, ARCO Alaska’s Dave Doherty and Mark Landt on the project
Three executives from Prodigy Alaska LLC, formerly Saddleback Resources LLC, a new leaseholder in Cook Inlet, are in Alaska this week to meet state officials and oilfield service contractors about a well the company hopes to drill in the next two years on acreage picked up at the May 9 Cook Inlet areawide sale.
Prodigy Alaska paid $22.18 per acre (a total of $214,775) for five state tracts encompassing 9,683 acres that are adjacent to the southern boundary of the North Cook Inlet unit.
Prodigy Alaska, which is owned by Texas-based Prodigy Oil and Gas LLC (formerly Epic Oil and Gas LLC), hopes to eventually drill three wells on the leases.
Prodigy recently hired Dave Doherty, a former ARCO Alaska Inc. geologist who spent 14 years in Alaska with ARCO.
Doherty’s job with ARCO was to take a new look at the geology of the Cook Inlet basin. “He spent 14 years studying the area, including 14 field seasons with a helicopter and crews out there,” Prodigy Vice President Lee Higgins told PNA. “The prospect we’re looking at drilling came out of that.”
“Sunfish and North Foreland were my wells,” Doherty said. “I saw an opportunity south of the North Cook Inlet field, but ARCO walked away from it.”
Prodigy has also hired Mark Landt, formerly district land manager for ARCO Alaska from 1992 to 1997. Landt initially worked as district land manager for Cook Inlet and then switched to the North Slope where he spent four years “working the Colville development from scratch,” he told PNA.
Higgins said Prodigy is still reviewing seismic from its five leases and expects to shoot additional seismic in the area before settling on a drilling location: “We’d like to drill our first well next summer, but that might not be realistic.”
If Prodigy is successful at finding oil, Higgins said the company will have to have its own platform, pipelines and related infrastructure to produce and transport the crude because the North Cook Inlet field, operated by Phillips, is a gas producing field.
Higgins said the company expects to open an office in Alaska after its leases are in production.
Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission releases meeting schedule
The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission will meet on Sept. 5, 12, 19, 26; Oct. 3, 10, 17, 24, 31; and Nov. 7, 14, 21, 28, at 9:00 a.m. in Anchorage.
The agenda may include: general commission business including personnel; regulation matters; policy and budget matters; oil and gas conservation issues; legislative issues; and agenda items deferred from prior meetings.
The public is invited to attend the meetings, however, commission business meetings do not provide for public testimony.
A finalized agenda will be prepared and posted at the commission's office at 333 West 7th Ave., Suite 100, by noon of the workday before each of the scheduled meetings. For more information contact Jody Colombie at (907) 793-1221.
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