State approves third plan of development for Phillips’ Stinson well tract east of Point Thomson

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas has approved a third plan of development for ADL 371024, the tract containing the 1990 Stinson well.

The lease lies some four miles east of the eastern boundary of the Point Thomson unit and development of any accumulation there is dependent on exploration and development in that area of the North Slope, where facilities currently do not exist.

Leaseholder Phillips Petroleum Co. completed remapping of known hydrocarbon accumulations in the greater Camden Bay area under the second plan of development.

Mapping of other potential reservoirs in the area has been slowed by bad weather in 1999, which prevented acquisition of additional seismic data.

In a Feb. 29 letter to Phillips, Division of Oil and Gas Director Ken Boyd encouraged Phillips to acquire 3-D seismic as soon as possible, because reprocessing of all data for the area is proposed to be completed by the Point Thomson unit owners by the end of this year.

Boyd approved the third plan of development for the lease, which runs through the end of February 2001, “on the condition that Phillips presents its latest interpretation of recently reprocessed seismic data to division staff prior to the end of the plan period.”

Also included in the third plan of development for lease ADL 371024 is Phillips’ support and active participation in current industry study group examining viability of commercial development of North Slope gas reserves, including those found at Point Thomson. Phillips and the Point Thomson unit owners have also begun reprocessing 3-D seismic data in and around the unit, a project expected to be complete near the end of 2000.

The reprocessed seismic data will be used to remap the Point Thomson reservoir and also to map other potential reservoirs in the area.