According to the global consulting firm DeGolyer and MacNaughton, the North Slope prospect contains proved gross reserves of 24.7 million barrels of recoverable oil. The firm also estimates the field in the new Southern Miluveach unit, on the southwestern boundary of the Kuparuk River unit, contains 43.6 million barrels of proved and probable (P2) reserves and 51 million barrels of proved, probable and possible (P3) reserves.

“These estimates confirm commerciality and a favorable rate-of-return to proceed with development,” Ken Thompson, lead member of Alaska Venture Capital Group LLC, the parent company of Brooks Range Petroleum, told Petroleum News by email Aug. 3.

The audit is the first public reserve estimate for Mustang.

Brooks Range Petroleum announced a discovery at Mustang earlier this year after completing the Mustang No. 1 delineation well this past winter to confirm the prospect.

The company previously estimated it would take “a few hundred million dollars to develop Mustang” and said it expected the field to begin production as early as 2014.

—Eric Lidji

See full story in Aug. 12 issue, available online at 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 10, at www.PetroleumNews.com