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Anadarko will use Phillips’ ice roads to reach Altamura prospect in NPR-A
Petroleum News Alaska Staff
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. is talking with state and federal agencies about six exploration prospects it is interested in drilling on the North Slope over the next five years.
The company has begun permitting for the Altamura prospect in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and Whiskey Gulch on state land south of Kuparuk. (See earlier stories about 2002 exploration in the August and Septembers issues of PNA.)
Some location information is now available, more specific for prospects which are possibilities for drilling this winter using Nabors Alaska Drilling rig 14-E.
The Altamura prospect in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, likely to be the first prospect drilled, includes two well locations: the 1 Altamura from a surface location in the SW 1/4 of 30-9N-2E, UM; and the 2 Altamura SW 1/4 19-9N-2E, UM.
Ice roads for Altamura will be a spur off the Phillips Alaska Inc. ice road to the 2 Rendezvous drill site. Anadarko said that if the Phillips ice roads are not available in time to meet the Anadarko drilling schedule, rolligons will be used to transport construction personnel, equipment and drill rig components to the Altamura well site.
The other prospect possible for this winter drilling season is Whiskey Gulch, which Anadarko is permitting as a backup to Altamura for 2001-2002. Whiskey Gulch is south of Kuparuk and east of the SE Delta unit, Whiskey Gulch A in 30-8N-9E, UM, and Whiskey Gulch B in 22-9N-9E, UM. Drilling at Whiskey Gulch could occur in the winter of 2002-2003. Prospects further out in time Kanna, east of Altamura and also in NPR-A, could be drilled in 2003 or later in either SE 1/4 34-9N-2E, UM, or W 1/2 35-9N-2E, UM.
Anadarko told the state that there is only one downhole target at Kanna, but two alternative surface drill sites. The company said Altamura and Kanna “are part of the same general geologic formation but they are separate oil and gas target locations.”
Only general locations are available for Wishbone, Dolly Varden, Pingo and K Square.
Wishbone, on the western side of the slope, is on state lands south of the Colville River southwest of Umiat in 2S-2W, UM.
In the central North Slope, far south of existing development, Dolly Varden is in 2S-11E, UM, northwest of Happy Valley, which is on the James Dalton Highway.
On the eastern side of the slope, Pingo is just off the eastern edge of the Slugger unit, southwest of Badami, in 7N-19E, UM, and K Square, southeast of Kavik and west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, is in 2N-23E, UM.
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