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Phillips to drill, collect environmental data in NPR-A Rick Mott tells Resource Development Council that Phillips aims to keep its title as Alaska’s No. 1 explorer By Kristen Nelson PNA Editor-in-Chief
Rick Mott, Phillips Alaska Inc.’s new vice president of exploration and land, told the Resource Development Council’s annual conference Nov. 29 that Phillips aims to keep its title as Alaska’s No. 1 explorer.
The company has drilled 13 exploration wells this year — and will complete two more before year-end, he said, compared to nine wells in 2000 and six in 1999.
“Phillips Alaska should in total drill or participate in approximately 10 exploratory wells in this winter, with about five of those occurring in the NPR-A,” Mott said.
The company will also do additional testing on some of its announced NPR-A discovery wells this winter, Mott said.
Seismic is a good indicator of future exploration drilling, he said, and in 2001 Phillips acquired “more than 1,000 square miles of proprietary seismic data… the largest Alaska acquisition seismic program that Phillips has ever conducted.”
Appraisal, data collection in NPR-A This winter, Mott said, Phillips will “appraise our NPR-A discoveries and in the same time collect baseline environmental and wildlife information to move forward with the development.”
“Our objective is to gather the data and that so that we can be in a position to make a decision on where we’re taking this project by year-end 2002,” Kevin Meyers, president of Phillips Alaska, told analysts Nov. 27.
The company also plans to evaluate and obtain new leases in the next NPR-A lease sale and acquire an additional 400 square miles of exploratory seismic data.
While Phillips plans 10 exploratory wells, Mott said that the precise number drilled “will depend on oil prices, the weather, restrictions on drilling by the regulatory agencies, contractor costs, exploration results and the final budget approvals… within Phillips.”
The future exploration program is not without challenges, he said.
The farther west the company goes, the more expensive it gets, with 140 miles of ice roads estimated for this winter’s exploration.
NPR-A development requires cooperation To make NPR-A development economic, Mott said, “we need the cooperation of all stakeholders, whether surface use owners, the state and local governments, regulatory agencies and certainly our contractors.”
Phillips is working hard to keep the costs of its exploration projects economic, he said.
“However, we need the help of regulators and contractors to keep our costs down and we need the help from the Legislature and local authorities to keep our taxes down.”
One thing that encourages exploration, he said, is regular offering of large tracts of exploration acreage. “I think BLM is doing an excellent job” with NPR-A acreage, Mott said.
“I’ll go beyond that, though, to say that even on an ongoing, day-to-day operating basis … I think BLM does an excellent job in coordinating with the various E&P companies. They’re very open in their comments and … I’m not saying that we don’t have differences of opinion, sometimes, but at least they have a very open and cooperative attitude. So I would have the highest compliments and praise for them and what they’ve done up to this point in time.”
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