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Producers 2025: Southern Miluveach status unknown Operator Mustang Holding, a Finnex company, has not reached goal of 4,000 barrels of oil per day-yet
Kay Cashman Petroleum News
The company's goal in its 11th POD filed Oct.2, 2024, was to bring more wells online and get daily oil production to 4,000 barrels.
The most recent production numbers supplied by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, or AOGCC, for July 2025 showed that goal had not been reached.
The following three wells were online in July 2025:
-North Tarn 1A produced 13,902 barrels in July for 31 days at an average of 448.45 barrels per day.
-M-018 produced 15,831 barrels in July for 23 days at an average of 688 bpd.
-M-03A produced 1,732 barrels in July for 22 days at an average of 78.7 bpd.
All production was Kuparuk River oil.
The field is operated by Mustang Holding, a Finnex company.
The 11th POD said it was submitted by Mustang Holding on behalf of the working interest owners, specifically Mustang Holding, Mustang Operations Center 1, Mustang Investment Holdings and AVCG.
A phone message to Harry Bockmeulen, listed as the registered agent in Anchorage in last year's Producers magazine (per paperwork submitted to the State of Alaska by Mustang Holding) was not returned; but to be fair he was given only two days to meet our deadline.
The Southern Miluveach unit, or SMU, began continuous production in December 2024, producing one day each month, December through February. All production came from the North Tarn-1A, the discovery well.
The SMU lies between the Kuparuk River and Colville River units.
Unit history The SMU was formed on March 31, 2011, and currently contains five tracts covering approximately 8,960 acres.
On Dec. 4, 2020, Alaska's Division of Oil and Gas approved Mustang Holding as operator of the SMU, after the previous operator and field developer Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. defaulted on its loan agreement with the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA.
Despite the default initiated by AIDEA, Brooks Range was the first small independent to bring an oil field online on Alaska's North Slope, producing its North Tarn-1A well from the Kuparuk River pool for one month in 2019, a total of 10,999 barrels over 23 days.
Mustang Holding was a wholly owned subsidiary of AIDEA, but ownership of Mustang passed to Finnex on Oct. 27, 2023. (Specifically, Division of Oil and Gas Director Derek Nottingham approved change of control to Finnex on Feb. 29, 2024, with an effective date of Nov. 1, 2023.)
The most significant work done in 2024 during the 10th POD was the successful drilling and completion of the M-03A and M-01B wells. Additionally, the North Tarn-1A well that was completed in 2012 was prepared to return to production.
Oil production from the SMU began flowing into the Alpine Pipeline on New Year's Eve, Dec. 31, 2024, Bockmeulen told Petroleum News that day.
During the 10th POD period, and continuing into the 11th POD period, the company reported that early process facilities, or EPFs, were being refurbished when possible, and new equipment was being installed as necessary.
The Kuparuk oil pool in the SMU is a continuation of Kuparuk C and Kuparuk A sands "adjacent to the southwest portion of the Kuparuk River Unit," Mustang Holding told AOGCC.
Phase 1, which was completed in the 10th POD period, included re-installation of the production facilities, re-entering existing wells, reconnecting the Mustang Pipeline and returning the field to production.
Additional wells were to be drilled in Phase 2 to keep production in the target range of 4,000 barrels per day, and were to include expansion of waterflood operations, Mustang Holding told AOGCC.
Depending on results from earlier phases, additional wells were to be drilled to bring the total to as many as 11 horizontal or vertical producers and 10 horizontal or vertical injectors. The company said the EPFs would be "debottlenecked or replaced by additional facilities modules if warranted by longer term production results, reservoir performance, and potential third party or multi-horizon Mustang field development."
Editor's note: Watch for news on the status of the SMU in Petroleum News, assuming the 12th POD is filed on Oct. 2, 2025, as scheduled.
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