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2nd qtr '27 Horseshoe well target to avoid $3.25 million bond loss
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
When the Horseshoe unit was approved in 2022, the exploration plan called for an appraisal or exploration well to be drilled before the end of the winter 2023-24 season. If the well was not drilled, the state required posting of a $3.25 million performance bond by July 1, 2024, to be forfeited if the well is not drilled by the second quarter of 2027.
That well is still in the planning stage.
(See map in the online issue PDF)
In the latest annual update on the Horseshoe unit plan of exploration, filed with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas and the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management June 27, operator Oil Search (Alaska), doing business as Santos, said drilling of the Stirrup-2 appraisal well is targeted for the second quarter of 2027. Santos is in partnership with Repsol E&P USA at Horseshoe.
Horseshoe is on both federal and state lands, overlapping the boundary between state lands and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. It is south of Greater Mooses Tooth in NPR-A and south of the Kuparuk River unit and west of the Quokka unit on state lands.
Horseshoe drilling The Division of Oil and Gas discussed recent drilling at Horseshoe in its 2022 unit decision.
Armstrong Energy drilled the Horseshoe 1 and 1A wells, the first on the proposed unit acreage, in 2017, with Horseshoe 1 spud in January 2017 targeting Brookian Nanushuk topsets. The division said the well was logged and cored, and a sidetrack drilled to the west to test a separate seismic amplitude anomaly.
"Both wells encountered potential Nanushuk reservoir in the top set facies with oil shows but neither well was flow tested," the division said. Both reached total depth in Torok facies below the Nanushuk, extending "the Nanushuk play more than 20 miles south of previous discoveries made in the Pikka Unit."
ConocoPhillips Alaska drilled the Putu 2 and 2A wells in 2018 to evaluate the Nanushuk north of Horseshoe, with Putu 2A testing at more than 2,000 barrels per day. The Horseshoe and Putu 2 wells were plugged and abandoned. ConocoPhillips drilled Stony Hill 1 in 2018 east of Horseshoe; the division said results are confidential; the well was plugged and abandoned.
Captivate Energy drilled Winx 1 east of Horseshoe in 2019, targeting the Nanushuk and Torok. The division said there were oil shows but the well was plugged and abandoned without flow testing.
Oil Search (Alaska) drilled the Stirrup 1 in 2020 in the center of unit acreage some 7.5 miles west of Horseshoe 1 and 1A some 28 miles southwest of the Pikka unit to test the Nanushuk.
"The well was tested and flowed at a stabilized rate of 3,520 bopd after a single-stage hydraulic fracture stimulation," the division said. Sidewall and conventional cores were taken and the well was plugged and abandoned.
Recent work In its June 27 update, Santos listed recently completed and ongoing work at Horseshoe, with completed work including:
*Interpretation and integration of ConocoPhillips Bear 3D;
*Completion of phase 2 of regional petrography study;
*Pre-stack depth migration comprising "all 3D currently licensed to Santos over unitized and non-unitized acreage in the 'core development area'";
*Phases 3 and 4 of regional petrographic study completed;
*Integration of Bear 1 data into regional Stirrup-Bear subsurface description; and
*"Stirrup-2 shallow hazards and PPFG studies completed for well planning."
Ongoing work includes continuing 3D interpretation; updating of static and dynamic modeling of discovered area reservoirs; and summer studies "including lake surveys and cultural site assessments" to be completed by the third quarter, "in preparation for drilling a well in the 2026-2027 winter season."
In the third quarter of 2026 summer studies are planned prior to spudding the "Stirrup-2 appraisal well" currently targeted by the second quarter of 2027.
--KRISTEN NELSON
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