Anderson certain it will find Beaufort gas this winter

Gary Park

Anderson Exploration is brimming with confidence as it prepares to drill two wells in the Canadian Arctic this winter on the 50 percent exploration license it operates with Petro-Canada.

Company chairman J.C. Anderson told a Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers investment seminar that his company “will be announcing a discovery there next year because we know there is a gas field under Tuk 2” on Inuvialuit owned land near the Beaufort Sea.

As well the company plans a three-dimensional seismic program on the property during the winter.

A 3-D seismic program, costing C$72 million and covering 1,600 square kilometers, is also starting this summer in offshore shallow Beaufort water on a 100 per cent Anderson-owned lease, he said.

Another 480 square kilometers of 3-D will be shot at the Pullen and Hansen leases in 2002. “There are hydrocarbons in the well,” said Anderson, noting that a well on Hansen tested at an average 20 million cubic feet per day in 10 zones. Imperial Oil subsidiary Esso made an oil and gas find at Hansen in 1986.

In the Yukon, Anderson has plans for two wells in the Eagle Plain where it is 100 percent owner of three exploration licenses.

The company shot 275 kilometers of two-dimensional seismic last winter and will add another 200 kilometers this winter, Anderson said.

The property is on the Dempster Highway, but if a lateral from the Mackenzie Delta to the proposed Alaska Highway isn’t built, reserves of at least 1 trillion cubic feet will be needed to make the area “fly,” he said.