Red Wolf exploration well comes up dry

The Red Wolf No. 2 exploration well in the eastern North Slope’s Badami unit was “a dry hole,” operator Savant Alaska’s president told Petroleum News May 8.

“The well was a dry hole. … our target zone was wet (contained water),” Greg Vigil said.

Red Wolf No. 2 targeted the Kekiktuk formation, which contains the oil reservoir for the Endicott field, west of Badami. The Kekiktuk is a deeper formation than the Brookian, where previous Badami development occurred.

Savant drilled the B1-38 well into the Red Wolf prospect in early 2010 and found oil in two horizons: the Kekiktuk and the shallower late Cretaceous Killian sands. Although Red Wolf is still an exploration prospect, it is currently producing from the Killian.

Red Wolf No. 2 was about two miles northwest of the bottom hole for B1-38.

Savant is on an ongoing mission to improve production rates at Badami, which has been shut down and restarted numerous times since startup in 1998.

Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission figures for March show 1,197 barrels of oil per day from Badami, an increase of 8 percent from February.

In addition to drilling Red Wolf No. 2, this past winter Savant did workovers in the B1-16 and B1-21 wells, installing gas lift to be able to produce the wells to the Badami plant.

The company has already started planning next winter’s drilling program, Vigil said.

—Kay Cashman