Operator EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. applied to plug and abandon the McCovey No. 1 exploration well in early February.
ConocoPhillips, a partner in the project with EnCana and ChevronTexaco, completed the bad news today: it said it is adding dry hole costs for McCovey to preliminary 2002 financial results.
A deepwater Gulf of Mexico well was also a dry hole for ConocoPhillips.
The McCovey prospect is in the Beaufort Sea north of Prudhoe Bay. Drilling began at McCovey late last year from the SDC, the steel drilling caisson; the well reached total depth Jan. 27. EnCana applied to the Minerals Management Service Feb. 2 to permanently plug and abandon the well.
ConocoPhillips' other dry hole, the Voss deepwater well, in Keathley Canyon Block 511 in the Gulf of Mexico, began drilling in September and reached total depth Feb. 7.
Neither well encountered commercial quantities of hydrocarbons, the company said.
Dry hole costs for the two wells in 2002 were $18 million, increasing the company's net loss for 2002 to $295 million or 61 cents per share. ConocoPhillips said remaining drilling costs on these wells incurred in 2003 will be charged to dry hole expense in the first quarter of 2003.
