|
Few clues on Great Bear’s next steps Duncan says rock samples from 2012 drilling still being analyzed; shale-oil development decision anticipated in the next year or so Alan Bailey Petroleum News
When quizzed by reporters following a talk at the Alaska Oil and Gas Congress on Sept. 18, Ed Duncan, president of Great Bear Petroleum, offered few clues regarding his company’s next steps in its quest to develop shale oil on Alaska’s North Slope. Duncan said that Great Bear had completed the second of two 3-D seismic surveys in its North Slope acreage and that his company was still moving toward a decision point on moving ahead with developing a shale oil resource.
“We are right on the original timeline,” Duncan said. “So our hope would be that you’ll see us sanction a full-field development in the next year or so.”
But, with work still in progress analyzing rock samples obtained from drilling last year, the company has yet to firm up plans for its next drilling project, he said.
2011 plan In September 2011 Great Bear filed an exploration plan for its North Slope leases with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. That plan envisioned the drilling of up to four near-vertical test wells at sites along the Haul Road, south of Prudhoe Bay. Depending on the results of well logging and the testing of rock core samples, the company might drill sidetrack wells from the initial vertical wells, to conduct short-term oil production tests from oil source rocks that the wells encounter, the plan said.
However, the plan also stated that the sequence of drilling after the drilling of the first two vertical wells was uncertain and would depend on the results from those two wells.
In the event, Great Bear, partnered by oil services company, Halliburton, drilled its first two wells, the Alcor No. 1 and the Merak No. 1, in the fall and early winter of 2012. The company did not sidetrack either well. However, in December of that year Duncan told the Alaska Oil and Gas Congress that the wells had successfully penetrated all three major North Slope source rock horizons and had found oil in the rocks. Great Bear, encouraged by the results of the drilling, wanted to accelerate its shale oil program by requesting state approval for extended production testing from its test wells and moving a decision on a full-scale shale oil development from 2014 to the middle of 2013, Duncan said.
However, although the company proceeded with a 3-D seismic program in its leases, the production testing did not happen.
Longer than expected In December 2012 Duncan told the Alaska Geological Society that testing of rock samples from its wells was taking longer than expected. And in April 2013 Pat Galvin, Great Bear’s vice president for external affairs and deputy general counsel, told Petroleum News that the analysis of well data and rock samples was advancing and that, when the analysis of the drilling data was complete, the results of that analysis, coupled with new 3-D seismic data, would enable Great Bear to determine its next steps.
On Sept. 18 Duncan said that Great Bear’s next wells would likely be away from the Haul Road. He commented that the $40 million that his company had spent on seismic surveys demonstrated its satisfaction in what it had found so far in its leases. The company is not going to make that kind of capital commitment if it is not encouraged by what it has, he said.
|
