|
Buccaneer expects to recover timeline Even with one-year delay, Australian company still expects to drill and test four offshore Cook Inlet wells by summer 2013 Eric Lidji For Petroleum News
Despite a delayed start, Buccaneer Energy Ltd. still expects to complete its initial exploration campaign in the upper Cook Inlet according to its original timetable, according to a plan of operations filed with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.
The Australian independent plans to conduct site clearance and pre-drilling geohazard surveys this year at its two offshore units — Southern Cross and Northwest Cook Inlet — while maintenance is under way on a jack-up drilling rig currently staged in East Asia.
Buccaneer initially planned to finish one well and begin drilling a second this summer, but pushed its program back one year after negotiations with the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority took longer than expected. Buccaneer and the marine company Ezion Holdings Ltd. are partnering with the public corporation of the State of Alaska to buy and upgrade a jack-up rig and move it on a heavy lift vessel to Cook Inlet.
Mobilization in mid-March Buccaneer now expects that mobilization effort to take place in mid-March 2012, in time to drill, test and complete two offshore wells — the Southern Cross Unit No. 1 between April and June and the Northwest Cook Inlet Unit No. 1 between July and October.
In summer 2013, Buccaneer plans to drill, test and complete Southern Cross Unit No. 2 between April and June and Northwest Cook Inlet Unit No. 2 between July and October.
After those four wells, Buccaneer would release the rig, making it available to other companies interested in offshore drilling in Alaska. While the AIDEA contract includes a mechanism to rent out the rig, AIDEA officials said they based their business case for investing up to $30 million in the rig on Buccaneer’s four-well commitment.
In its previous project description filed with DNR in January, Buccaneer also anticipated that it would complete initial exploration and release the rig in summer 2013.
Under its unit agreements with the state, Buccaneer must drill a first well in each unit by Sept. 30, 2012, and a second well in each unit by Sept. 30, 2014, or risk losing the acreage.
| 