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Talisman identifies big prospects on North Slope Independent is stepping up its activities in northern Alberta and B.C. Gary Park Petroleum News Calgary Correspondent
With 560,000 acres of North Slope exploration rights in the bank, Talisman Energy is quietly bringing Alaska onto its radar screen, along with its core Monkman area in northeastern British Columbia.
Talisman executive vice president, exploration, John ’t Hart, told a conference call Nov. 2 that the Canadian independent has identified a “couple of very big prospects” in its 560,000 acres that are both onshore and offshore the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
But he said drilling by Talisman’s U.S. subsidiary, Fortuna Exploration, is unlikely before the 2005-2006 winter drilling season because of the time needed to gather seismic data. ’t Hart also said drilling will be done with “other companies.” (Talisman’s partnership with Total went away when Total assigned the Caribou leases to Fortuna in October, as per report in the Oct. 31 issue of Petroleum News.)
Chief Executive Officer Jim Buckee said Talisman plans to acquire further acreage in an area he rated as having the largest remaining undiscovered conventional oil potential in North America.
Although Talisman is not ready yet to plunge north of the 60th parallel, it is stepping up its activities in northern Alberta and British Columbia, where it is part of the big league of deep gas operators. Monkman well tests 40 mcf The latest breakthrough was announced Nov. 1, when Talisman said its b-60-e Monkman well tested at a restricted rate of 40 million cubic feet per day and is expected to start producing at that level in January 2005, with the potential to surpass 75 million cubic feet per day.
Buckee said the discovery could represent 200 billion cubic feet of original-gas-in-place. Three or four other structures could yield a similar result.
Talisman plans four wells next year in the Paleozoic formation, but cautioned that the wells cost up to C$18 million each and take as long as six months to complete.
Talisman has identified 30 potential drilling locations which it believes could yield targets of 35 billion cubic feet or more per well. A landmark discovery in mid-2002 at Monkman could unlock a regional play exceeding 1 trillion cubic feet of recoverable reserves, Talisman said at the time. Paleozoic discovery could be as prolific as Triassic Buckee said the Paleozoic discovery could be as prolific as the region’s Triassic play that has so far produced 2 tcf.
Gas sales from the Paleozoic reservoir are anticipated to reach 50 million cubic feet per day and will be fed into spare capacity on Duke Energy’s British Columbia pipeline network.
Talisman made its Monkman breakthrough in mid-2002 with a well that tested at up to 37 million cubic feet per day.
It acquired 9,400 acres in a British Columbia land sale in October, increasing its portfolio to 331,000 acres.
Talisman is also a major player in the Deep basin area, which straddles the Alberta-British Columbia border and averaged third-quarter output for the company of 66 million cubic feet per day of gas and 2,270 barrels per day of oil and natural gas liquids, up 19 percent from a year earlier.
A study completed last spring by Petrel Robertson Consulting for the British Columbia Ministry of Energy and Mines estimated the ultimate tight gas resource potential at 111 tcf to 260 tcf in place, but did not set a figure on how much might be recoverable.
Established Deep basin reserves on the British Columbia side were projected at 3 tcf, with potential for up to 10 tcf.
In the British Columbia Foothills, the consultants estimated the tight gas resource at 95 tcf to 230 tcf.
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