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Pantheon hopes to put Alkaid online in 2020, vs. 2021
Kay Cashman Petroleum News
London-based Pantheon Resources, which acquired the North Slope assets of Great Bear Petroleum in January, says current planning could result in the Alkaid/Phecda phased production project coming online as early as summer 2020, versus 2021.
In a mid-July update, the company said the advanced schedule was “subject to completion and timing of a successful farmout,” noting pre-application meetings with state and federal agencies for the pilot production testing of the Alkaid discovery had taken place, with “positive and supportive feedback.”
No permitting issues were identified, Pantheon said.
The Alkaid discovery, drilled but never tested by Great Bear in 2015, was successfully flow tested in March by Pantheon’s local subsidiary, Pantheon Alaska Petroleum Operating. The company combined Alkaid with the nearby Phecda prospect, a remapping process that included merging in additional 3D seismic data. It showed Alkaid and Phecda were part of the same Brookian structural accumulation.
Alkaid/Phecda was estimated to contain 900 million barrels oil in place, with 90-135 million barrels of P50 technically recoverable oil.
In its mid-July update, Pantheon said the nearby Talitha prospect was thought to also hold 900 million barrels of oil, with the same recoverable resource.
The company also provided an update on the farmout process.
Pantheon officials are working closely with geophysics specialist eSeis on preparation of a data room, which was on target to open later in July in Houston.
According to a June 24 Pantheon press release, eSeis was under contract to “process, analyze and interpret geophysical data,” as well as “help manage Pantheon’s asset sale process in Alaska.”
Furthermore, eSeis was doing the work for a “heavily discounted rate” in exchange for a 1% overriding royalty interest.
In its mid-July update, Pantheon said it had already been approached by, and started discussions with, several industry and financial groups and was hoping to drill a minimum of two wells in “winter/spring 2019/2020, most likely one at Talitha and one at Alkaid/Phecda.”
Generating early, regular cash flow The Alkaid/Phecda oil field is near the Dalton Highway and the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, possibly allowing for some early year-round oil sales to generate income, which is unusual for North Slope projects under development since most of the region has no permanent roads. (Ice roads and pads are allowed in roadless areas when the tundra is frozen in the winter. Great Bear was previously allowed to drill in the summer from rig mat drill pad locations along the Dalton Highway.)
In a June 6 press release and webcast, Pantheon said it would use mobile production units to handle output from three or four delineation wells adjacent to the Dalton in the highway’s already-established transportation corridor, trucking the oil north to Pump Station No. 1 of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline until full-scale development of approximately 50 wells and related infrastructure with a central processing facility could be completed.
Pantheon expects the year-round operation of these three or four wells will produce about 1,500 barrels of oil per day each.
Technology has improved After the March testing, Pantheon said its primary target, the Brookian, was at an 8,100-foot depth, flowing 80-100 barrels per day of high quality, light oil (40 API) from a 6-foot perforated interval within a 240-foot interval of net pay.
Future development wells will be drilled horizontally and fracked, typical for North Slope Brookian developments, which Pantheon said, “should result in vastly improved flow rates.”
The Talitha exploration well will be near the Pipeline State No. 1 discovery well drilled by ARCO, predecessor to ConocoPhillips, in 1988
“They didn’t have 3D at the time. Drilling technologies weren’t as advanced as they are today,” Bob Rosenthal, Pantheon’s technical director, said in the June webcast.
“ARCO drilled the well looking for a thick, clean sand and instead found a thick zone of interbedded, laminate-type sands and shales. The sands were oil-bearing but at the time given the … $10 price of oil and the fact completion technology wasn’t as advanced as it is today, the well was plugged and abandoned. … With today’s horizontal drilling technology, we believe we have a significant discovery” at Talitha, he said.
- KAY CASHMAN
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