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Akita Drilling unveils $18 million “state-of-the-art” Arctic rig Akita Equtak Rig. 63 will underpin Anderson Exploration’s four-year drilling program in the Mackenzie Delta and Beaufort Sea Gary Park PNA Canadian Correspondent
The wraps have come off Akita Equtak Rig. 63, which its owners describe as a “C$18 million, state-of-the-art Arctic drilling rig” which will underpin Anderson Exploration’s four-year drilling program in the Mackenzie Delta and Beaufort Sea.
The rig, weighing in at 3 million pounds, is a joint venture by Akita Drilling and the Inuvialuit Development Corp., the business arm of the Inuvialuit Regional Corp.
Akita Vice President Ron Hunt said the rig is completely self-sufficient for Arctic conditions and has a smaller footprint than regular rigs so it can work on ice or gravel pads.
IRC Chair and Chief Executive Officer Nellie Cournoyea said that deciding to invest in Arctic resource development has been a difficult choice for aboriginal people. But, because of commitments from Akita, Anderson Exploration and other companies, the Inuvialuit “feel a true responsibility that we make this development a success.”
J.C. Anderson, chairman of Anderson Exploration, said a wide range of people stand to benefit financially from the joint Anderson/Petro-Canada exploration program. However, he said: “We have no assurance that we will benefit from our efforts, since we are involved in exploration in its purest sense.
“It takes an unusual amount of courage to be an explorer and to lay your ideas and capital on the line with no assurance of a return, although we are confident that we will be successful,” Anderson said.
Anderson, the largest holder of Delta-Beaufort exploration lands at 1.6 million acres, has allotted C$100 million to fund projects in the Northwest Territories this year and “we’ll be spending much more than that next year, but we haven’t arrived at a number yet.” Looking at Beaufort shallows He said the new rig will drill two exploration wells for Anderson in the Arctic this winter. The company will also begin offshore seismic studies of the shallow coastal waters of the Beaufort, concentrating on water about 50 feet deep.
In mid-May, Anderson and partner Petro-Canada suspended drilling of their C$25 million Kurk-L15 well, 125 kilometers north of Inuvik in the Northwest Territories for fear an ice road to the site would melt. Drilling had reached a depth of 2,695 meters when J.C. Anderson announced they couldn’t go any further “because if we leave the rig in there we are not even going to find the sucker next fall. It will sink out of sight.”
The well marked the return of onshore exploration to the Delta after a 24-year hiatus. It was the only well planned for the Canadian Arctic last season.
Petro-Canada had postponed a planned start date of Feb. 1 by two weeks because the ice road wasn’t thick enough to bear the weight of rig equipment being trucked to the lease.
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