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Caelus plans 2 Smith Bay wells; mobilization by snow road, barge
Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas has published a proposed plan of operations filed by Caelus Energy Alaska specifying exploration drilling in the southern part of Smith Bay, on the Beaufort Sea coast towards the western end of the North Slope. Caelus says that it plans to drill one or two wells in its Smith Bay leases during the winter of 2015-16 as part of its Tulimaniq exploration project. The company will first drill the Tulimaniq CT-1 well, with the CT-2 well to follow for further prospect evaluation, the plan says. The plan of operations deals specifically with the CT-2 well and says that the CT-1 well is being permitted under a lease plan of operations amendment.
The CT-1 well would be located in shallow water close to the southern shore of Smith Bay, near the delta of the Ikpikpuk River, while the CT-2 location is in the southwest corner of the bay. Drilling will be conducted from circular ice pads. The water depth at the CT-2 location is four to six feet, the plan says.
Mobilization The plan says that equipment needed for the drilling would be transported by barge during the open water season and by snow road during the winter. Equipment critical to the spudding of wells is being staged at Point Lonely, on the coast to the east of Smith Bay. Ultimately, all equipment and materials will be mobilized to a staging area and camp near the southern shore of Smith Bay on an ice pad adjacent to a frozen lake with an ice landing strip. An ice road will run six miles from the staging area to the CT-1 location and then another five miles to CT-2.
A snow road will run from the central North Slope to the Tulimaniq staging area. In total, about 166 miles of snow trail and ice road will be required, the plan says.
The plan anticipates pre-packing of snow and ice roads between the beginning of October and mid-December. Staging pad preparation will take place in early December. The plan assumes that winter off-road tundra travel will be open between mid-December and the beginning of May, with overland demobilization starting towards the end of March and potentially continuing though early May. Drilling of the CT-2 well would potentially take place between March 7 and March 28.
Acquired 75 percent interest Caelus is new to Smith Bay exploration, having acquired a 75 percent interest in the Tulimaniq leases from NordAq in June. NordAq, a previous sole lease owner, had planned to drill a single Tulimaniq well in the winter of 2014-15 using the Doyon Arctic Fox rig, but the company ultimately deferred the drilling. The company had envisaged eventually drilling as many as 10 Smith Bay wells.
Talisman Energy Inc. subsidiary FEX explored the Smith Bay region in the 2000s, commissioning an offshore seismic survey in Smith Bay and drilling three onshore wells in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The company found oil in all three wells and later claimed to have established a sizable oil reserve potential. However, the company abandoned its Alaska program, frustrated by the challenging logistics and an inconsistent federal leasing program.
Remote but prospective Oil and gas development in such a remote area of Arctic Alaska would presumably require a major find, especially given the huge distance to existing oil infrastructure and the pipeline system through which oil would need to be exported. Smith Bay is about 150 miles west of the Kuparuk River unit in the central North Slope.
But the Smith Bay area appears highly prospective for oil. There are well known oil seeps at Cape Simpson on the west side of the bay, and the bay lies close to the westward extension of the Barrow Arch, the major geologic structure associated with the producing oil fields of the central North Slope. The bay is located in an area of potential oil traps between the oil seeps and a region where oil is likely to have been generated in the subsurface.
- ALAN BAILEY
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