Pioneer gets AOGCC permits for Beaufort Sea exploration wells

Kristen Nelson, PNA editor-in-chief

Pioneer Natural Resources Co. received drilling permits for its three Beaufort Sea winter exploration wells, the Ivik 1, the Oooguruk 1 and the Natchiq 1, from the Alaska Oil and Gas conservation Commission the first week of December.

Dallas-based Pioneer is the operator for the prospect developed by Armstrong Oil & Gas Inc. of Denver, Colo. Armstrong’s plan calls for drilling as many as three wells offshore between the Kuparuk River unit and Thetis Island in the 2003 winter season.

The Division of Governmental Coordination completed the state’s consistency review in mid-November and found the proposed project consistent with the Alaska Coastal Management Program.

Pioneer told PNA in early November that it expects its 2003 budget for Alaska to be $15 million, up from $3 million in 2002. Pioneer signed an agreement with Armstrong in October, giving it a 70 percent working interest in 10 state oil and gas leases and operatorship of the 14,000 acres, for which Armstrong paid $4.2 million at a state oil and gas lease sale in October 2001.

Pioneer said the Northwest Kuparuk wells will test an area “prospective for oil in the same sands as the offsetting Kuparuk River unit eight to 10 miles to the southeast.”