ConocoPhillips joins North Slope winter explorers

Kay Cashman

Petroleum News

As it turns out, ConocoPhillips’ Shark Tooth 1 well in the Kuparuk River unit is an exploration well, per the drilling permit issued by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

This brings the total number of 2012 North Slope explorers to six and the total oil exploration wells to between 23 and 27. The record was 35 in 1969, following the Prudhoe Bay discovery.

The explorers and the wells they expect to drill are: ConocoPhillips 1; Pioneer Natural Resources 2; Repsol 9; Savant 1; Brooks Range Petroleum 2; Great Bear Petroleum 4-6 verticals plus 4-6 horizontals.

All exploration involves ice roads and pads except Great Bear’s proof of concept program, which is in the Dalton Highway’s transportation corridor, meaning the company can drill year-round from gravel roads and pads.

Doyon rig 141 is almost finished drilling ConocoPhillips’ Shark Tooth 1, which is “critical” for “future development of this part of the Kuparuk reservoir,” the company said in agency filings.

As of Feb. 8, Nabors rig 9ES was at Repsol’s K-1 ice pad and expected to begin drilling in the next day or two. Nabors 105AC was on Repsol’s Q-2 ice pad, with drilling to begin soon. Nabors 2ES was headed out to Repsol’s Q-1 ice pad. Doyon’s Arctic Fox has not been moved to Q-4, Repsol’s ice island, because it can’t begin drilling until 9ES is finished at K-1, as the North Slope Borough is only allowing Repsol to operate three rigs at one time.

Around March 1, 9ES will travel to Badami to drill Savant’s Red Wolf 2.

Nabors rig 27E is drilling the first of two Pioneer Natural Resources’ wells, Nuna 1 and Sikumi 1, which target the Torok formation in the Oooguruk unit.

Brooks Range is drilling the first of two Mustang wells.

Great Bear will start drilling 8-12 wells in May.

Also part of this winter’s exploration is Anadarko Petroleum’s rig-less testing of its Chandler 1 gas well. The test, under way by Expro, includes hydraulic fracture stimulation by Schlumberger. (In last week’s issue PN erroneously reported Schlumberger was doing the testing.)