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Explorers 2025: ConocoPhillips grows step by step
Once comfortable with wildcats, ConocoPhillips now stays close to home.
Eric Lidji for Petroleum News
In the 23 years since ConocoPhillips was created through a merger, it has pursued new oil in Alaska through wildcats, through infrastructure-led exploration, and through development within its units. Each of these strategies presents different comfort with risk.
In the past five years, ConocoPhillips has increasingly favored growth at its existing units over the thrill of far-flung exploration. The company drilled nine exploration wells in the 2018 and 2019 season (according to the definition of "exploratory" used by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission) and was planning a seven-well effort for the 2019-2020 season when the pandemic struck. Nothing has really been the same since.
Spooked by low oil prices and a ballot initiative to increase production taxes, the company planned no exploration for the 2020-2021 season -- a rare occurrence. With the initiative defeated, the company announced in early 2021 that it was "hitting reset" by focusing on cost reduction, stakeholder engagement, and development drilling.
Between late 2021 and early 2023, ConocoPhillips permitted and drilled four exploration wells at the new Kuparuk River unit 3S drill site targeting the Nanushuk formation.
ConocoPhillips returned to exploration in early 2023 with the Bear No. 1 well. Given that Bear No. 1 was a Brookian topset play like Pikka, Horseshoe, Stirrup, Mitquq, and Willow, the company was expecting a "high chance of success." The well was a dry hole.
ConocoPhillips drilled the CD5-32X exploration well (also called the Fiord West Kuparuk Titan No. 1) at the Colville River unit in early 2024. The company said that the well would "evaluate subsurface data to support continued oil and gas development."
The Titan No. 1 well built upon an exploration campaign from the early 2000s that led to the Iapetus No. 1, Iapetus No. 2, and Char No. 1 wells drilled between 2005 and 2008.
Although the mid-2000s campaign was promising, development was hampered at the time by the lack of infrastructure in the area west of the Colville River. Those issues were greatly alleviated by the construction of the Nigliq Channel bridge and the CD5 drill site.
The company had yet to announce Titan No. 1 results by the first quarter of 2025.
Some of this change in strategy pre-dates the pandemic. ConocoPhillips was promoting "infrastructure-led exploration" around its Alpine field as early as 2008, and yet the company was also taking great risks on a Chukchi Sea exploration campaign.
The Kuparuk West Sak 3D seismic survey in 2005 and especially the Western Kuparuk 3D seismic survey in 2011 also prompted ConocoPhillips to explore closer to existing developments. By late 2015, a combination of infield drilling and infrastructure-led exploration allowed the company to increase production while also reducing operational spending. It is notable that the company dropped its Chukchi Seas leases in 2016.
The shift away from traditional exploration activities doesn't mean ConocoPhillips isn't spending money or pursuing new resources. The company is responsible for four significant North Slope projects: Nuna, West Sak, Coyote, and Greater Mooses Tooth.
But given that ConocoPhillips has been the most active and consistent explorer on the North Slope in the 21st century, this continuing shift away from traditional exploration projects is a consequential moment for the entire oil patch. While it might take time to fully understand what is happening right now, everyone should be paying attention.
Kuparuk River Unit At the Kuparuk River unit, ConocoPhillips recently commissioned the 3S and 3T drill sites to accommodate production from the Torok (Moraine) and Coyote (Nanushuk).
The construction of these drill sites prompted the company to apply for two new associated participating areas, which the state ultimately approved with some conditions.
According to information from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the company had permitted 16 development and service wells at these two new drill sites and had completed 10 of these wells through the first quarter of 2025. Completed were the 3S-617, 3S-606, 3S-722, 3T-621, 3T-608, and 3T-312 injectors and the 3S-624, 3S-610, 3S-722, and 3T-603 producers. Permitted but as yet undrilled were the 3S-626, 3S-714, and 3T-730 injector wells and the 3S-602, 3T-616, and 3T-731 producer wells.
For the development year ending July 2025, the company planned to drill eight wells in the proposed Torok participating area and six in the proposed Coyote participate area.
Through the end of 2024, ConocoPhillips had produced 3.7 million barrels of oil from the Torok (Moraine) interval and 1.2 million barrels from the Coyote (Nanushuk).
ConocoPhillips was also pursuing new viscous oil production from the West Sak and Ugnu using the existing drill sites 1C and 1H as well as two additional pads.
Colville River unit Just as ConocoPhillips is pursuing new oil at the Kuparuk River unit by developing new drill sites, it has recently been pursuing expansion acreage at the Colville River unit.
ConocoPhillips called the prospect Titania in the early 2000s. Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. called it Tofkat in the mid-2000s. ConocoPhillips called the prospect Putu in the late 2010s and later announced a 100 million to 350 million barrel Nanushuk discovery at Narwhal. With that announcement, the state created work commitments for the company.
ConocoPhillips is currently at a transitional moment at the Narwhal participating area.
ConocoPhillips installed the CD4X3 pad expansion in 2022, allowing for a five-well program in 2023 into the expansion acreage at the southern tip of the Colville River unit. The company plans to drill another four wells over the course of this year and next year.
The company completed the Narwhal 3D seismic survey in 2019 and 2020 and processed the data in 2021 and 2022. It subsequently acquired and processed a 2022 survey by SAExploration. It recently finished reprocessing those surveys through an integration effort called the "Narwhal Merge" and is now using that data for upcoming drilling.
The longer-term development plan calls for a new CD-8 pad in the expansion acreage.
According to a timeline included in its most recent plan of development, ConocoPhillips could begin stakeholder work through an Environmental Impact Statement as early as this year with first production from Narwhal scheduled to begin no sooner than 2030.
Greater Mooses Tooth unit The Nigliq Channel bridge to CD-5 allowed ConocoPhillips to pursue more exploration and development of acreage within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
ConocoPhillips operates two units in the reserve: Greater Mooses Tooth and Bear Tooth.
The Greater Mooses Tooth unit produces from two reservoirs: Lookout and Rendezvous.
ConocoPhillips brought Lookout online from the GMT-1 pad in 2018 and Rendezvous online from the GMT-2 pad in 2021. GMT-2 averaged 14,000 barrels per day in 2024.
Following an exploration campaign, the company began pursuing the large Willow discovery at the Bear Tooth unit in 2018 and sanctioned the $7.5 billion project in late 2023. The company is currently looking to develop some 600 million barrels of recoverable oil, estimated to start in 2029 and peak at around 180,000 barrels per day.
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