Total E&P USA has dropped all but three of its 20 leases in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, assigning eight leases to partner Talisman Energy and relinquishing nine to the Bureau of Land Management.
The leases Total assigned to Calgary-based Talisman’s U.S. subsidiary, Fortuna Energy, cover the Caribou prospect — both the east and west blocks — where Total and farm-in partner Fortuna drilled an exploration well in the winter of 2003-2004.
The three leases Total hung onto cover the Fox prospect, which lies south of the USGS/Husky Inigok Test Well No 1, Total spokeswoman Jenna Wright told Petroleum News Oct. 26.
Leases in the Bear prospect were relinquished to BLM.
“The leases we kept are strictly Total’s with no agreements or farm-ins at this time. The leases we retained are lease AA-084146 (tract 2002L135); lease AA-084148 (tract 2002L137) and lease AA-084153 (tract 2002L156) covering the Fox prospect,” Wright said.
“We released this acreage in order to focus our resources and efforts elsewhere within our U.S. portfolio, but the three leases we retained will be further evaluated to determine their exploratory potential,” she said.
Talisman has said it will probably drill a well in NPR-A in the winter of 2005-2006.
When asked in July 2004 if the well would be on the acreage it then shared with Total, the new NPR-A acreage it picked up in June 2004 on the eastern edge of BLM’s northwest NPR-A planning area, or elsewhere, David Mann, manager of investor relations and corporate communications for Talisman, said he didn’t know.
“Obviously we already have seismic on the Total acreage,” he said. “And obviously we have our own views on geology and prospectivity,” he said in regard to the 9,362 foot, Caribou 26-11 No. 1 exploration well Total drilled, then plugged and abandoned, on the Caribou prospect.
