XTO Energy’s 2003 Alaska budget up from 2002; completes eighth horizontal well in inlet

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

XTO Energy Inc., operator of platforms A and C at the Middle Ground Shoal field in Cook Inlet, will likely spend $16 million in Alaska next year, up $1 million from 2002, Doug Schultze told PNA recently.

Schultze is the Fort Worth-based independent’s vice president of operations for the Permian Basin and Alaska.

The company has just completed its eighth horizontal sidetrack at Middle Ground Shoal since it purchased the platforms and Shell Oil’s interest in the field in 1998, he said.

Well costs are running between $3 million to $5 million each, Schultze said, and XTO has been getting an average of 750,000 barrels of oil reserves per well.

The horizontal wells came on at more than 500 barrels a day and the company has been able to continue at that production rate, he said.

The field produces about 4,600 barrels per day for XTO, but without the company’s development work, current production would probably be at about 3,000 bpd, Schultze said.

(See full story in The Independents.)