Akita, Doyon form JV; building rig for Pioneer work on North Slope

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska Inc., Doyon Drilling Inc. and Akita Drilling Ltd. have signed a four-year contract to build and operate a rig to perform exploratory drilling services on the North Slope.

Akita Drilling said March 14 that the rig will be built in Canada during the summer of 2005 and operated beginning in 2006 by the newly formed joint venture, Doyon Akita J.V.

Akita said this is a long-term drilling contract. Pioneer is a large independent oil and gas exploration and production company based in Dallas. The company has operations in the United States, Argentina, Canada, Equatorial Guinea, South Africa and Tunisia. Pioneer has discoveries at its Oooguruk unit in the shallow waters of the Alaska Beaufort Sea and is evaluating development potential at Oooguruk. The company has interests in 1.6 million acres in Alaska including federal National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska acreage and state acreage on the central North Slope.

Doyon Drilling Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Doyon Ltd., has five rigs operating on the North Slope and some 290 employees.

Akita Drilling is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, has some 37 drilling rigs in all depth ranges and at full operations employs some 750 people. Akita has operations throughout Western Canada and the northern territories.