No new NPR-A wells staked, but Phillips hopes to drill from Puviaq pad

Kay Cashman

No stakings for new wells in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska have been received by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, but it’s still early, BLM said. Last year the first stakings came in July 27.

Mark Hanley, spokesman for Anadarko Petroleum Corp. in Alaska, told PNA it is unlikely his company will drill another well in the NPR-A this winter, although Anadarko is still analyzing the results of its Altamura No. 1 well, which it drilled last winter.

But PNA sources say Phillips Alaska Inc. is looking at drilling a well at its Puviaq insulated ice pad in the NPR-A (see map). With the exception of development drilling at the Barrow gas field, it will be the farthest west North Slope drilling in several decades.

Phillips is also reportedly looking at drilling wells in the vicinity of its other NPR-A wells — all wells are contingent on budgetary approval, sources say.

In March, Phillips applied to build a 1.5 acre insulated ice pad at the Puviaq prospect in order to keep Nabors Alaska Drilling Rig 16-E in the area over the summer.

The pad, which was constructed this past spring, is west of Teshekpuk Lake approximately 67 miles southeast of Barrow in section 35 township 16N range10W, Umiat Meridian. Those coordinates place the Puviaq pad on a Phillips-Anadarko (78 percent, 22 percent) lease close to the western boundary of currently leased NPR-A acreage south of Smith Bay. The Puviaq pad is some 65 miles northwest of Phillips’ Hunter exploration well, some 72 miles northwest of the Mitre and Lookout prospects and some 45 miles west-northwest of BP’s Trailblazer prospect.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in March that no drilling operations were planned for the site; that the rig would be moved to a “nearby winter exploratory drilling site” after tundra travel is approved for the 2002-2003 winter season, but PNA sources now say Phillips is now looking at drilling from the pad this winter. That information was not officially confirmed by Phillips.

ARCO Alaska Inc. (now Phillips Alaska) and Anadarko paid as much as $210.01 an acre for seven tracts west of Teshekpuk Lake in the 1999 NPR-A lease sale. This group of tracts is in the area of the NPR-A lease sale characterized by BLM as having a lower probability of hydrocarbons.

The Puviaq pad is on a tract for which the companies paid $203 an acre. The $210.01 an acre tract is immediately to the east.

BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. and Phillips Petroleum Co., bidding jointly, paid an average of less than $8 an acre for an adjacent block of five tracts to the south; Chevron is now a partner in that acreage.