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Another victory
Armstrong Oil & Gas takes Explorer of the Year award at Energy Council event
Kay Cashman Petroleum News
On Oct. 23, Bill Armstrong of Denver-based Armstrong Oil & Gas accepted the 2025 Explorer of the Year award for his team at the prestigious North America Energy Capital Assembly event in Houston.
The award was an acknowledgement of the huge Alaska eastern North Slope oil discovery at Sockeye-2 that Bill Armstrong's Lagniappe made last winter. His partners in the exploration well and much of the surrounding 325,000-acres are Apache Corp. and Santos.
"I wasn't expecting to win the award as we were up against the final nominees of BP, Exxon, EOG and Talos," Armstrong told Petroleum in an Oct. 24 interview. "I can't believe it.
"The idea that we were up against BP and EOG and Exxon and Talos is amazing because they have 100,000 employees and we have 12."
Armstrong praised Exxon for the huge amount of oil they produce for the world: "I love what Exxon has done."
"If we're not out there exploring for new ventures all the time, the world is going to go hungry and dark and it's going to be a scary place. We do so much for this world, for this planet.
"I cannot imagine being in a better industry to make the world a better place. We take it on the chin all the time from politicians, newspapers, the media, but damn it we're awesome.
"I want everyone to know that exploration is the lifeblood of our industry. It really is. I love it" Armstrong said, praising the technical advances constantly being made in the industry.
Sockeye-2 discovery When asked about recoverable reserves shortly after the Sockeye-2 discovery was made public this past spring, Armstrong said he was estimating 700 million barrels recoverable in the "main Sockeye pay sand. ... That number will more than likely be adjusted with future drilling."
Focus on seismic Operator Armstrong and his partners are in the process of reprocessing the 3-D seismic from "multiple shoots" across "most" of the 325,000-acre block, Bill Armstrong told Petroleum News in a June text.
"We have delayed the drilling of appraisal wells and wildcats around Sockeye until early 2027. ... Now that we have drilled a well and better understand the subsurface Apache/Armstrong/Santos have all agreed that that made the most sense," he said.
Nanushuk play to west Bill Armstrong's first huge discovery on Alaska's North Slope was the Nanushuk play west of Prudhoe Bay in 2013, the Qugruk 3 well.
The discovery led to the 2-plus billion-barrel Pikka oil field, today operated and being developed by Santos.
Armstrong said the Sockeye prospect was "based off of reprocessed 3-D seismic. The trap is very similar to what we found at the Pikka field; a top-set stratigraphic trap. This discovery extends the North Slope top-set play 94 miles east of our Pikka discovery. A big trend!"
The Sockeye pay, Armstrong said, "looks very similar to the pay sands at Willow and Alpine, except the permeabilities at Sockeye appear to be substantially better -- maybe 10-times better. The oil is medium gravity, low viscosity, sweet oil."
North American Assembly Finally, David Chelich, Head, Global Energy, TMX Group Limited, summed up what many attendees thought of this year's event:
"The Energy Council once again hosted an extremely convenient and well organised event with its North American Assembly. It was an excellent venue to network while discussing the state of the North American oil & gas industry with top executives and global thought leaders. The Energy Council created an agenda that was topical to market conditions. Huge value add from my perspective."
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