Independent Talisman takes first step into Canadian Arctic

Gary Park, PNA Canadian correspondent

Talisman Energy Inc., the Canadian independent with a vast array of international holdings, has turned its attention to the Arctic.

In a “very preliminary” move, the company has taken a minority role in a partnership that plans to drill a well on the Mackenzie Delta in 2003, Talisman spokesman Barry Nelson told PNA Dec. 18.

The company was not in a position to disclose its partners and had not yet chosen a well location, he said.

But Talisman’s tentative emergence in the Arctic adds to the ranks of E&P companies who operate outside the Mackenzie Delta Producers Group.

Those players include Anadarko Canada Corp., BP Canada Energy Co., Burlington Resources Canada Ltd., ChevronTexaco Canada Resources, Devon Canada Corp., EnCana Corp. and Petro-Canada.

The partnership of Petro-Canada and Devon has scheduled an offset well for January to get a better reading on this year’s Tuk M-18 discovery well, which has reserves estimated at about 300 billion cubic feet. So far that is the only winter well announced for the Delta.

If Talisman decides to expand its tentative foothold in the Arctic, it could make a major impression on the region.

The Calgary-based company announced Dec. 17 that it plans a capital budget of C$2.2 billion for 2003, up 8 percent from 2002, including C$900 million for domestic activities, mostly hunting for natural gas in western Canada.

Its global activities include the British North Sea, Malaysia, Indonesia, South China Sea, Trinidad, Colombia and most recently Qatar, where it has signed an E&P sharing agreement with the government covering a 784,000-acre offshore block, which Talisman believes has the potential for discoveries in the range of 100 million to 300 million barrels.

Talisman looks at Alaska