AOGCC issues two exploration permits

The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission issued two permits in early April. The agency gave Great Bear Petroleum Operating LLC a permit to drill the Talitha No. 2 well in the central North Slope, south of Prudhoe Bay, along the Dalton Highway.

The agency also gave Repsol E&P USA Inc. a permit to drill the Qugruk No. 9 well in the Colville River Delta. The agency previously issued a permit for the Qugruk No. 9 well in mid-January this year. The new permit has a slightly different bottomhole location.

Toward the end of 2014, Great Bear announced a three-well exploration program on its leases west of the haul road. The company began exploring the region in 2012. After several years of conducting seismic and other fieldwork, the company has resumed drilling operations this year, looking for both conventional and unconventional targets.

Drilling activities took longer to begin than anticipated this year. In February, the company said it would likely only drill two wells this winter: Alkaid and Talitha.

Great Bear discovered Talitha through a 2013 seismic survey but needed to acquire an additional lease to properly target the prospect. The company was able to acquire the lease during a recent sale and to convince the Alaska Department of Natural Resources to “fast track the issuance of the lease,” which allowed the company to drill this winter.

Repsol is conducting a three-well program this winter, which is its fourth season of exploration in the region between the Kuparuk River unit and Colville River unit.

The Qugruk No. 9 well is nestled between the Qugruk No. 1 and Qugruk No. 6 wells, which Repsol drilled in early 2013 and the Qugruk No. 5 and Qugruk No. 7 wells, which the company drilled in early 2014. The company is using three rigs for the program.

Repsol recently asked the state to form the Pikka unit over some 63,304 acres of the region, including many of the wells from this and prior years. The three wells Repsol is drilling this year would fulfill an initial work commitment for the proposed unit.

- Eric Lidji