Escopeta/BBI aims for 2003 Cook Inlet drilling

Steve Sutherlin, PNA managing editor

Houston-based Escopeta Oil and Gas Corp. told PNA in late October that it was nearing a deal with partners to drill its Kitchen and East Kitchen prospects east of the South Middle Ground Shoal unit in Cook Inlet. If all goes well, the first well will spud in 2003.

“I imagine we’ll drill our first well this coming summer,” Escopeta President Danny Davis said. “That’s my prediction.”

Escopeta contracted with Fairweather Inc. to find and mobilize a jack-up rig for the well, Davis said.

The company recently purchased “another 100 miles” of seismic data on its property, and is reprocessing the data using a new energy absorption technique, Davis said, adding that now the prospect “looks even better.”

Initial estimates of the company’s reserves were obtained using energy absorption to reprocess 20 year-old 2-D seismic.

In January and February Escopeta transferred 100 percent of its working interest in its Cook Inlet leases to BBI Inc., a holding company owned 50-50 by Escopeta President Danny Davis and Lawrence Berry of Berry Contracting Inc. of Texas. BBI is the third-largest leaseholder in the inlet with 120,000 gross acres.