ASRC completes Placer exploration

ASRC Exploration LLC has completed drilling operations at the Placer No. 3 exploration well, according to recent records from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

The exploration subsidiary of Arctic Slope Regional Corp. completed the nearly vertical 6,380-foot well on March 17 in the Placer unit, which is nestled among the Kuparuk River, Oooguruk and Pikka units. Placer No. 3 was delineating an oil discovery made more than a decade ago by ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. and a consortium of partners.

ASRC Exploration has yet to release any results from the program.

The well is the first to be operated by ASRC Exploration, which has spent the past decade apprenticing on other Arctic projects, mostly notably the Badami unit.

The Placer No. 1 and No. 2 wells encountered approximately 17 feet of hydrocarbon-bearing sands in the Kuparuk formation in 2004. But ConocoPhillips lost interest in the prospect before pursuing development. ASRC first acquired the prospect in 2006 but spent nearly a decade arranging terms with other companies and with state officials.

- ERIC LIDJI