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THE EXPLORERS 2004: Total’s position in Alaska uncertain
Kay Cashman Petroleum News
The bad news: Total E&P USA plugged and abandoned its first Alaska exploratory well, completed Feb. 25, 2004, and four months later relocated its top man in Alaska, Jack Bergeron, to Houston.
While there was some indication that Talisman’s U.S. subsidiary Fortuna Energy, Total’s partner in its National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska acreage, wanted to drill a sidetrack because its geologists had their own views on the geology and prospectivity of the Caribou 26-11 No. 1 well, Total still does not intend to drill a sidetrack from the Caribou well.
The company’s Houston-based communications manager, Jenna Wright, said Total has “no definitive plans” to bid in any Alaska lease sales “at this time.”
The good news: Following the plugging and abandonment of the Caribou well, Fortuna spent a chunk of money on more NPR-A leases, albeit not in the same vicinity as the Caribou prospect. Plus, Fortuna intends to drill an exploratory well in the winter of 2005-2006 on either one of Total’s three NPR-A prospects or on its own acreage.
More good news: Total’s Alaska oil and gas acreage is not up for sale and the company (as of Oct. 19, 2004) has kept its Anchorage office opened, manned by one full-time person.
Still some hope And, there is still some hope for Total in Alaska: Total “is continuing to evaluate the data gained from the Caribou 26-11 No. 1 well. We have not publicly disclosed the drilling results from that well and have no plans to do so at this time. … Total is currently focusing its resources on other projects and areas within its U.S. asset portfolio, but continues to monitor both the Arctic area and NPR-A as the industry determines more about its potential from new and ongoing exploration and production activities there,” Wright, told Petroleum News Oct. 19, 2004.
The Anchorage office is manned by office manager Lianne Hopper. George Snodgrass works as a private contractor on a part-time basis for the company in Anchorage, Wright said.
Total acquired its NPR-A acreage in 2002, paying $53 million for 20 tracts. The company’s investment in Alaska, including seismic purchases prior to land acquisition, 230,000 acres in NPR-A, subsequent 2-D and 3-D seismic acquisitions, and the well the company drilled at its Caribou prospect, was estimated by Bergeron to be in excess of $100 million by the end of 2004.
Total drilled the Caribou 26-11 with Nabors Alaska 14E rig on federal lease A084170 in section 26, township 10 north, range 5 west, Umiat Meridian. Because the Caribou prospect was “80-plus miles from the nearest road,” the company used rolligons to move the rig and equipment to the site to save the time it would have taken to build ice roads. The whole distance, Bergeron said, was 70 miles from Deadhorse to the end of the road, and then the 80 miles by rolligon.
Within NPR-A, the companies built an ice road from the old Inigok test well, where there is a 5,000-foot gravel runway, so personnel and supplies could come in by air.
The well was spud Jan. 29 and work was completed Feb. 25. The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission said the vertical hole was drilled to its planned total depth of 9,362 feet.
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