"The next tranche of wells is going to be stepping west of the Haul Road, so we're going to be looking at ice (pad) locations in the winter of 2015," Duncan said.

Duncan said that his company has secured the use of a drilling rig for the winter drilling season and that drilling may continue into the summer on year-round drill sites near the North Slope Haul Road.

The company is working on the required permitting for the drilling and anticipates filing a plan of operations with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources shortly.

Great Bear last drilled in the fall of 2012, when it completed two vertical test wells, the Alcor No. 1 and the Merak No.1, at sites near the northern section of the North Slope Haul Road. The company subsequently suspended its drilling operations while it analyzed the drilling results. The company has since continued with extensive 3-D seismic and LIDAR survey programs in its North Slope acreage, as well as commissioning a regional aquifer study and coordinating the compilation of a major dataset of North Slope geologic information for shale-oil drill-site evaluation.

And with all of this data now coming together, the company has identified potential drilling locations and is ready to start turning the drill bit again, Duncan said.

- ALAN BAILEY

See story in Oct. 5 issue, available online Friday, Oct. 3, at www.PetroleumNews.com