ASRC plans one Placer winter well

ASRC Exploration LLC, a subsidiary of Arctic Slope Regional Corp., plans to drill one new exploration well, the Placer No. 3, in the Placer unit on the North Slope during the coming winter, according to an oil discharge prevention and contingency plan that AEX has filed with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. The well will be located in section 33, township 12 north, range 7 east of the Umiat meridian, the contingency plan says.

The Placer unit lies between the Colville River, to the west, and the Kuparuk River unit, to the east.

Drilling would be conducted from a board-covered ice pad, accessible by ice road, the plan says.

AEX has committed to drilling a well in the Placer unit by May 2016 as one of the conditions associated with a unit expansion that the state of Alaska approved in November 2014.

ConocoPhillips, in conjunction with a group of oil companies, drilled the Placer No. 1 and No. 2 wells in 2004, finding about 17 feet of hydrocarbon-bearing sands in the Kuparuk formation. But ConocoPhillips subsequently lost interest in the prospect. ASRC acquired the prospect in a March 2006 lease sale and in 2010 acquired the No. 1 well. ASRC also obtained the rights to a seismic survey of the Placer region.

In September 2011 the state approved a 1,480-acre Placer unit covering a portion of four leases. The state initially denied an application to expand the unit, following some reprocessing of seismic data by ASRC. However, ASRC appealed the state’s decision. And, in the wake of a flurry of exploration activity by Brooks Range Petroleum and Repsol E&P USA Inc. in nearby acreage, the state, under a new administration, eventually did approve the unit expansion, subject to several conditions including the drilling of the third Placer well.

- ALAN BAILEY