A multi-company joint venture led by Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. announced this morning what will likely be the only North Slope exploration well drilled this winter.

The Alaska-based independent plans to start drilling the North Tarn No. 1 well by March 1 from an ice pad located about two miles west of the Kuparuk River unit.

The 6,300-foot well would test targets in the Brookian formation and the deeper Kuparuk formation. BRPC estimates that the Brookian reservoir contains some 35 million barrels of oil and the Kuparuk reservoir contains an additional 6 million barrels of oil.

BRPC plans to drill the well using Nabors rig 9ES.

The joint venture farmed-in six Eni Petroleum leases at North Tarn in January 2010 and recently applied to form the Southern Miluveach Unit, covering 56,460 acres over the leases. The companies are proposing to drill four wells and shoot a 3-D seismic program at the unit. The North Tarn No. 1 well would satisfy the first drilling commitment.

BRPC operates a multi-company joint venture on behalf of TG World Energy and Ramshorn Investments. The group is responsible for some of the most active exploration campaigns on the North Slope in recent winters. The joint venture also owns the Tofkat prospect west of North Tarn, the Beechey Point unit in the Gwydyr Bay area north of the Prudhoe Bay unit and the Slugger prospect south of the Point Thomson unit.

See more in Feb. 6 issue, available to subscribers online by 11 a.m., Friday, Feb. 4, at www.PetroleumNews.com