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UltraStar permitting Dewline Deep No. 1 Alaska-owned independent maps out a return to prospect planned for drilling earlier this year; plans to build short ice road Eric Lidji Petroleum News
UltraStar Exploration is permitting a one-well exploration program this winter to test oil and gas reserves on a lease north of Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope of Alaska.
The Alaska-owned independent plans to drill Dewline Deep No. 1 using the Doyon Arctic Wolf rig, stacked in Deadhorse and under contract with FEX as of Nov. 13.
As described in a plan of operations filed with the state in late October, the exploration program would require a 2.2 mile ice road connecting the gravel road leading to Point McIntyre with an ice pad being built at the well site at ADL 389944.
UltraStar expects to build the road in January or February, and drill the well between January and April. The company expects the well to take about 30 days to drill and test.
Plans for a vertical well UltraStar began stalking Dewline Deep after a seismic survey suggested the prospect held between 5 million and 20 million barrels of oil in the Ivishak and Sag River formations.
Through lengthy negotiations between 2004 and 2006, which included talk of possibly expanding the Prudhoe Bay unit to include Dewline Deep, UltraStar and BP came to terms on a framework for facility access. UltraStar planned to drill directionally from Point McIntyre, and BP agreed to operate the program with an UltraStar geologist onsite.
But over the fall of 2007, complications with potential partners and revisions to the state production tax led UltraStar to delay its drilling plans at Dewline Deep for the season.
Now, abandoning the more challenging directional well, UltraStar is planning a vertical well to some 9,900 feet, Jim Weeks, managing member of UltraStar, said in October.
Weeks said drilling vertically would be cheaper as well, helping to offset the extra permitting, metering and connection costs, making the project about even economically.
“If we find hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs, we’ll test the well and then apply for permits” for a gravel road tying back to Prudhoe Bay infrastructure, Weeks said.
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