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ConocoPhillips permitting NPR-A well
ConocoPhillips is permitting a well in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska
The most active player in the NPR-A recently applied for a U.S. Bureau of Land Management permit to drill the GMT 1-B2 oil well in its Greater Mooses Tooth unit.
The well would be on lease AA-81798, a small lease at the eastern end of the unit.
In 2001, ConocoPhillips-predecessor Phillips Alaska Inc. staked 13 wells in the NPR-A, including the Tuvaaq No. 1 and No. 2 wells on AA-81798, neither of which it drilled.
In early 2008, the BLM approved the ConocoPhillips-operated Greater Mooses Tooth unit — the first unit to be formed in NPR-A. The unit partially included AA-81798.
Unit formed in 2000 The BLM formed Greater Mooses Tooth on the basis on the considerable exploration drilling ConocoPhillips had conducted in the area starting in 2000. The drilling yielded numerous oil discoveries, the majority of which are clustered in the center of the unit.
Following changes to the state oil tax earlier this year, ConocoPhillips announced plans to begin permitting and early engineering at Greater Mooses Tooth, but said it needed to sanction the project before it could provide estimates “for cost, hiring or production.”
The BLM expanded Greater Mooses Tooth in 2009 to include four leases along its eastern edge. In return, ConocoPhillips must spud an exploration well somewhere in the expansion area by the third quarter of 2015. The well must target the upper Jurassic.
The expansion area included AA-87896, AA-81797, AA-81796 and AA-81795, which would suggest GMT 1-B2 is not designed to fulfill that particular work commitment.
In October 2008, ConocoPhillips staked four well locations at Greater Mooses Tooth, including Flattop No. 1 on AA-81798, but it neither permitted nor drilled the well. In October 2012, ConocoPhillips staked a new Flattop No. 1 and a Flattop No. 2 well on AA-87896 and AA-81796, respectively, but neither permitted nor drilled either well.
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. owns a 22 percent interest in Greater Mooses Tooth.
—A copyrighted oil and gas lease map from Mapmakers Alaska was a research tool used in preparing this story.
—Eric Lidji
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