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THE INDEPENDENTS 2003: Forest Oil is bullish on Alaska
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Leonard Gurule, Forest Oil’s new senior vice president of Alaska operations, faces the challenge of disappointing production results from the company’s Redoubt Shoal field in Cook Inlet, but he has arrived in the state with a positive message.
“I can tell you,” he told Petroleum News Oct. 27, “that Forest is bullish on Alaska.”
Gurule is going through the company’s Alaska assets, determining what looks good for Forest to drill, and what it should hold off on, where it should drill itself and where it should take partners.
And what does he expect in the future? “I see us growing in Alaska,” he said.
Gurule was named in late September to fill the Anchorage post left by outgoing Senior Vice President Gary Carlson. Gurule was with ARCO for 19 years, including postings at Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk, and most recently was chairman of the board and CEO of Virginia Indonesia Co.
No jackup rig next summer Forest is a producer at Redoubt Shoal and at West McArthur River and is also a partner in Cook Inlet properties operated by Unocal and ConocoPhillips. The company has an exploration license in the Copper River area and two in the Susitna basin, as well as extensive Cook Inlet exploration acreage, including prospects that require a jackup rig for drilling.
Forest probably won’t be bringing a jackup rig into the inlet this coming summer to drill its exploration prospects, because given the advance planning required, a rig would just about have to be under contract now. And it’s too early for that, Gurule said, because how to handle those prospects is still being evaluated.
It all takes time, and since that work hasn’t been completed, he said, “We’re not in a position to be able to contract for a rig at this point, which almost clearly says there won’t be a rig here next year.”
Production from the Redoubt Shoal field has been a disappointment, but a field study under way in Anchorage will help the company understand the reservoir and produce new reserves estimates, he said, and a drilling review should identify the most cost-effective ways to drill at the field, where Forest in 2000 set the first new platform in Cook Inlet since the late 1980s. Reassessing drilling, he said, will ensure that best practices learned on one well are being applied to new wells, and also involves asking partner Unocal about its best practices.
The field study includes “reevaluating the geology and the geologic model,” information which will go into a reservoir model to help Forest determine how many wells to drill into the reservoir, whether or not to waterflood, what recovery the company can expect, “given the wells that we have,” and what recovery could be expected from Redoubt if more wells are drilled.
Gurule said Forest wants to make sure it understands the reservoir and the producing mechanism.
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