THE EXPLORERS 2006 - Newcomer Savant drilling Beaufort leases

Q. Full company name?

A. Savant Alaska LLC

Q. Where is it based?

A. Denver, Colo.

Q. Office in Alaska?

A. No

Q. Full-time employees in Alaska?

A. None. We have several consultants engaged to assist with permitting and drilling.

Q. First acquired leases in Alaska?

A. March 1, 2006

Q. Outside parent company?

A. Savant Resources LLC

Q. Location of parent?

A. Denver, Colo.

Q. Top officer at parent company?

A. Patterson Shaw, CEO and president

Q. Person in charge of Alaska operation?

A. Greg Vigil, COO and executive vice president

Q. Exploration activities to date in Alaska?

A. Savant has purchased state leases, licensed approximately 200 square miles of 3-D seismic, initiated permitting process to drill.

Q. Net acreage position in Alaska?

A. Approximately 15,000 acres

Q. Interested in acquiring more acreage north of the Brooks Range? If yes, are you currently evaluating any properties?

A. Yes and yes

Q. Interested in acquiring acreage south of the Brooks Range?

A. No

Q. Looking for investment partners for your Alaska properties?

A. No

Q. Your Alaska exploration plans for the next year?

A. Savant hopes to spud Kupcake No. 1 exploration well in February.

Q. Preferred exploration area north of Brooks Range?

A. Near existing infrastructure

Q. Obstacles to exploring and developing?

A. Land access

Q. Purely speculative question: Funding decisions aside, how high would you like to see your company’s production in Alaska in 10 years?

A. 30,000 barrels of oil per day

Looks to spud Kupcake No. 1 in February

In correspondence to PN on Oct. 18, Greg Vigil, Savant’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, said the company “is moving forward with its intent to spud Kupcake No. 1 in February 2007.”

Shaw, who won the Beaufort Sea leases at the March 1 state areawide sale and transferred them to Savant Alaska LLC, bid a total of $1.465 million for the seven leases, his bids ranging from $10.17 to $207.35 per acre. The tracts are east of Prudhoe Bay, adjacent to Liberty, and extend east towards BP’s offshore/onshore Badami oil field along the Mikkelsen Bay fault zone.

On Sept. 27, Savant offered a pre-permit application overview of the company’s Beaufort Sea “Kupcake project” to a joint gathering of North Slope Borough, State of Alaska and federal officials, Vigil said.

At that meeting Savant characterized the proposed drilling prospect as “a conventional exploration well targeting several hundred feet of Beaufortian-age sediments located at a depth of approximately -10,600 feet.”

The proposed exploration site, Savant said, is approximately 8,000 feet west of the Liberty No. 1 discovery well.

“Based on interpretation of licensed 3-D seismic data, Savant suggests that Beaufortian sediments have filled an accommodation space between the NW-SE trending Mikkelsen Bay and Tigvariak faults adjacent to the discovery at Liberty,” Vigil said.

Exploration drilling during the 2006-07 winter season is intended to prove or disprove the prospect, he said.

Vigil, who is based in Denver, is one of two former BP Exploration (Alaska) employees working for Savant — Anchorage-based Erik Opstad is the other.

Opstad, a consultant, was tasked with finding a suitable drilling rig and putting together a group of contractors for Savant’s exploration program, Shaw said in April.