JV finishes North Slope road

Partnership between AIDEA and AVCG/Ramshorn completes five-mile road and 19-acre pad at Southern Miluveach unit

Eric Lidji

For Petroleum News

A public-private joint venture has completed its first North Slope infrastructure project.

Mustang Road LLC recently completed a five-mile gravel road and an associated 19-acre gravel pad to support development activities at the Mustang field in the Southern Miluveach unit, according to joint venture operator Brooks Range Petroleum Corp.

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority owns an 80 percent interest in the joint venture and the small independents AVCG LLC and Ramshorn Investments Inc. own the remaining 20 percent. The independents are partners on the Mustang leases.

Through the deal, AIDEA loaned the partnership $20 million toward the $25 million cost of the road, pad and other associated infrastructure projects connected to development.

“We are pleased that after only two years from drilling our discovery well at Mustang, we have completed this first phase of development,” BRPC’s Chief Operating Officer Bart Armfield said in a statement, adding, “Our primary contractor, Alaska Interstate Construction, and all subcontractors did an outstanding job of bringing this project in on time while maintaining an excellent safety and environmental protection record.”

The road is located just southwest of the Kuparuk River unit. The pad will eventually become the site for drilling, processing facilities, an operations center and a camp.

AIDEA Deputy Director of Project Development and Asset Management James Hemsath called the project “an important step in a new era of North Slope developers and producers.” The partnership is part of a larger AIDEA strategy to help finance aspects of oil and gas developments that are economic, but somehow ill suited for private financing.

AIDEA also intends to help finance production facilities at Mustang, a move it can take because the Alaska Legislature recently gave the public corporation additional authority.

Brooks Range Petroleum said it expects to start building facilities this year, start drilling at Mustang in 2014 and bring the field into production toward the end of the year. The company estimates peak production from the field to be some 14,000 barrels per day.