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Pioneer’s Thetis Island project receives ACMP determination
Kristen Nelson & Kay Cashman
The Division of Governmental Coordination said Nov. 14 that it has completed coordinating the state’s review of the proposed Thetis Island oil and gas exploration project and has found the project consistent with the Alaska Coastal Management Program.
The project, proposed by Armstrong Oil & Gas Inc. of Denver, Colo., is being taken over by Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources Co., which has signed an agreement giving it a 70 percent working interest in 10 leases and operatorship.
Armstrong’s plan calls for drilling as many as three wells offshore between the Kuparuk River unit and Thetis Island in the 2003 winter season. Drilling will be from grounded ice islands in Harrison Bay.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said it is requiring a fully executed contractual agreement with Alaska Clean Seas to provide response resources. DEC is also requiring more information on the ice islands and monitoring plans and procedures and is requiring that drilling into hydrocarbon-bearing formations be completed by March 31.
Pioneer joining Alaska Clean Seas Brad Hahn, general manager of Alaska Clean Seas, a non-profit based in Deadhorse, told PNA Nov. 20 that “Pioneer has not officially joined yet but they have every intention of joining by Dec. 1.” He said ACS has a letter of intent from Pioneer and that Pioneer has by-laws, membership fees and other information from ACS. They “are in agreement with everything,” Hahn said. The ACS board of directors has voted on the Pioneer application and agreed to let them in.
“It’s just a matter of getting a signature on the bottom line,” he said.
Pioneer will be the seventh member of Alaska Clean Seas. Current members are Alyeska, ConocoPhillips, BP, ExxonMobil, EnCana (joined last year) and Anadarko (joined two years ago). Hahn said each member appoints someone to the board of directors.
Membership is $500,000 with an annual fee of $50,000 plus additional fees when a company is doing exploration drilling, based on the number of rigs, and additional fees when a company is producing. Hahn said there was no charge for workover-type rigs.
Drilling in January Armstrong said in the plan of operations it submitted to the state that it expects to start drilling on or before Jan. 20 and be completed by March 15. Well evaluations may be performed at any of the well locations, the company said, but all sea ice operations are expected to be complete by March 22.
Access to planned ice drilling pads will be from sea ice roads beginning at the Oliktok Point dock road. The wells, named by Arctic Slope Regional Corp. President Jacob Adams, are the Ivik (walrus in Inupiaq), Oooguruk (bearded seal) and Natchiq (seal).
Stu Gustafson, vice president of operations for Armstrong, told PNA ice road construction could begin as early as Dec. 1, “weather permitting.”
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