AEX President Teresa Imm told Petroleum News in a May 28 interview that the company is open to selling all or part of the field, which includes a well certified capable of commercial production.

"We have a 100% working interest," Imm said. "We feel it's time to market the asset."

AEX, a subsidiary of Arctic Slope Regional Corp., has retained Detring Energy Advisors of Houston, Texas, to sell the North Slope unit and related assets.

Placer represents an exploration success, slated to come online sometime in 2019-20. AEX is analyzing its production options, including apparently the management of development costs.

The Placer unit offsets multiple prolific oil fields and includes a development-ready project across multiple stacked pays, including two existing wellbores and a highly economic development opportunity in the Kuparuk C sand, with substantial upside in the Nanushuk Topset and Alpine C, Detring said in promotional materials.

The 8,768-acre unit has 110 million barrels of original oil in place, with between 35 million and 45 million barrels of oil recoverable across all horizons, Detring said.

The Placer unit is in a good neighborhood, along the prolific Kuparuk River unit on the east, and bordering the promising Pikka unit on the west.

"Well and analog data indicate the field is an ideal development candidate due to favorable average porosity (23.4 percent), high permeability (430 mD), and light oil viscosity (26.2API @ 1.51-1.85cP)," Detring said, adding, "Reservoir model indicates Kuparuk C development generates $107 million PV-10 value (BTAX) and greater than 8,000 barrels per day of oil peak rate utilizing two producers and two injectors."

- STEVE SUTHERLIN

See story in June 2 issue of Petroleum News, available online May 31 at www.PetroleumNews.com