ASRC Energy Services gets ANWR test well planning contract

Kay Cashman

Petroleum News Publisher & Managing Editor

The Alaska Division of Oil and Gas has selected ASRC Energy Services as its first choice to assist it in drawing up preliminary plans for a stratigraphic test well offshore the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 1002 area. Anchorage-based ASRC Energy Services was one of two companies that responded to a Sept. 26 RFP from the state of Alaska for planning the well and putting a consortium together to drill it. (See related story on the cover of last week’s Petroleum News at www.PetroleumNews.com)

“We have recommended our contracting office enter into negotiations with ASRC Energy Services to negotiate a contract,” division geologist Jim Cowan told Petroleum News Oct. 24.

If a satisfactory agreement is reached, the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. subsidiary will help the division put together a plan for the ANWR test well, including a cost estimate. ASRC Energy Services will solicit commitments and technical input from individuals or organizations willing to participate in a consortium to drill the eastern Beaufort Sea well in the winter of 2004-2005.

The state said the planning project is expected to cost $50,000.

According to the RFP, the division is looking at well locations on unleased state submerged lands approximately 30 miles southeast of Kaktovik, Alaska, “between the state’s three-mile limit and the coastal boundary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The area of interest is offshore of the Angun oil seep near Angun Point.”

The RFP asked for work to be completed by Jan.5, but Cowan said that date will likely be renegotiated for a later date “sometime in the first quarter of next year.”