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Another stab at Telemark BRPC and its partners are proposing a smaller unit on the eastern North Slope after withdrawing initial plans last September Eric Lidji For Petroleum News
A joint venture operated by Brooks Range Petroleum Corp. is proposing to form the Telemark unit over nine leases covering 16,235 acres on the eastern North Slope.
The proposed unit would sit between the Badami unit and the western edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The group proposed a four-year term running through Dec. 31, 2015, with a possible five-year extension if the companies meet their work requirements.
The companies are proposing to conduct a 3-D seismic survey at the unit by the end of the year, chose a drilling location by Dec. 1, 2013, and drill the well by March 31, 2014, or risk losing the unit. The companies would apply for a second unit plan by Dec. 31, 2015.
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources is taking comments through May 21.
The working interest owners in the proposed unit are Brooks Range Petroleum parent company Alaska Venture Capital Group LLC and affiliate Brooks Range Development Corp. and Nabors affiliate Ramshorn Investments Inc. The companies have spent “well over” $4 million exploring the region since acquiring their first leases in October 2003, primarily through field work in 2007 and 2009 and a 3-D seismic program sanctioned in 2008 but delayed by tundra closings.
The proposed Telemark Development Project would produce oil from the Flaxman Sands, a Brookian age reservoir discovered with the East Mikkelsen well in 1971.
Standalone processing Brooks Range Petroleum would build a standalone processing facility at the unit, which would be close to the existing Badami pipeline and the future Point Thomson pipeline.
“The proposed Telemark Development Project will create a vital processing facility for (the Telemark unit), providing synergies which will lower the economic hurdle allowing other potential hydrocarbon accumulation within and around the (Telemark unit) to be developed,” the company wrote in its application. “The other potential hydrocarbon accumulations are currently believed to be higher risk, which characterizes them as marginally economic and they would not likely be developed without existing infrastructure and processing facilities with the (unit). Likewise, future development of the other potential hydrocarbon accumulations within (the unit) using the Telemark processing infrastructure will extend the economic life of Telemark production.”
A second attempt at unit Telemark is the second attempt at a unit in the region.
Brooks Range Petroleum applied last summer to form the 200,058-acre Greater Bullen unit over 68 State of Alaska leases in a similar area of the eastern North Slope, but withdrew the application and relinquished some 100,000 acres a few months later.
The acreage the companies kept included nine leases in the “N” block, also known as the Telemark prospect, located between the existing Badami and Point Thomson units.
With Telemark, Brooks Range Petroleum would operate six units across the North Slope: the Putu, Tofkat, Southern Miluveach and Kachemach units nestled in the fairway between the Kuparuk River unit and the Colville River unit; the Beechey Point unit north of the Prudhoe Bay unit and the proposed Telemark unit on the eastern North Slope.
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