Apples to apples

The Sept. 25 issue of Petroleum News reported that Pioneer Natural Resources was planning to drill two Nuna “appraisal wells” this winter, targeting the Torok formation.

Both Pioneer and the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission defined the wells as exploratory, which means they were being drilled to discover or delineate a new pool.

Because the bottom holes of both wells were inside an existing producing unit, Petroleum News initially elected not to include them in its list of upcoming exploration wells.

But the newspaper has revised its definition of an exploration well to match that of AOGCC because the historical records kept by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and other agencies use AOGCC’s definition, which makes comparisons with exploration activity in other years consistent — apples to apples.

—Kay Cashman