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Polar releases Hemi Springs reserves Study estimates 558.2 million barrels of recoverable oil reserves from Ivishak, Kuparuk and Schrader Bluff/West Sak formations Eric Lidji For Petroleum News
The Hemi Springs prospect could contain some 558.2 million barrels of total recoverable petroleum reserves, according to a study released by Polar Petroleum Corp.
The study by geologists David T. Gross and Donald W. Brizzolara bases its findings in part of previous wells drilled in the region and in part on the geology of the Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk River units located to the north and northwest of the North Slope prospect.
“The study concludes it is to be expected that the same source rocks that have supported the North Slope’s prolific production to date, as well as comparable migration pathways and geohistories, will influence the generation of hydrocarbon accumulations in the Hemi Springs Project area,” Polar Petroleum said in a prepared statement announcing the study.
The study breaks down its estimates by formation, assigning some 298.7 million barrels to the Ivishak, some 139.7 million barrels to the Kuparuk and some 119.8 million barrels to the deeper and traditionally heavier Schrader Bluff and West Sak. The study also found that “all three shale oil prospective horizons are well established” under the leases.
Four wells in vicinity The study considered the results of four wells drilled in the vicinity of the Hemi Springs leases, including the Burglin No. 33-1 well, which Alaskan Crude Corp. used to underpin the former Arctic Fortitude unit; and the Hemi Springs State No. 1 well, which the State of Alaska certified in 1984 as Capable of Producing in Paying Quantities. According to the study, a drill stem test of Hemi Springs State No. 1 recovered 21 barrels of 27 API oil from the Ivishak and “several” drill stem tests produced oil from the Kuparuk C-sands.
“This new geological study has confirmed our positive expectations of the extent to which oil reserves could exist under our Hemi Springs Project acreage. We can now work toward obtaining more definitive reserve estimates through seismic data acquisition over the area that will allow for detailed structural mapping of the prospects discussed in the Study, and possibly other prospects,” Polar CEO Daniel Walker said in a statement.
Several days after announcing the study, Polar announced that it had appointed Gross to its advisory board as Head of Alaskan Exploration. After years in other basins as a geologist for Chevron USA, Gross arrived in Cook Inlet in 1990 and has since played a role in the development of the Sterling Gas field; the sale what is now the future Redoubt Shoal field; and the development of the Catcher’s Mitt, among other deals.
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