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Great Bear gets OK for Dubhe-1; Megrez lacks appreciable oil, gas
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Great Bear Pantheon has approval from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas for a unit plan of operations for the Dubhe-1 exploration well in the company's Talitha unit on the North Slope. In its May 16 approval, the division said the well will be some 27 miles south of Deadhorse.
(See map in the online issue PDF)
Megrez, also a Talitha unit exploration well, did not find appreciable quantities of oil or gas, Pantheon Resources said May 21. That well was drilled last year, with testing continuing into 2025.
Work at Dubhe is scheduled to begin this month with construction of a 500-foot by 310-foot gravel pad 1,500 feet west of the Dalton Highway, and a gravel road 50-feet wide by 1,400-feet long connecting it to the highway.
The pad will accommodate a drilling rig, drilling support facilities, satellite office camp, storage areas and maintenance building.
The division said gravel work is expected to begin in May with drilling operations as early as July. Gravel for the road and pad will be from an existing material site at milepost 390 of the Dalton Highway.
Work schedule Gravel mining and conditioning at Dubhe is proposed to start in mid-May, with construction of the gravel driveway and pad from mid-May to the end of June. Moving the rig to the Dubhe Pad, followed by rig up and spud, are scheduled for July 1-15, with drilling running through the end of August, followed by completion in September and flow testing from October through December. Should additional well testing be required, that will occur from January through March.
The division said pad construction will be after break-up in the spring, but prior to bird nesting.
The Dubhe-1 has three possible subsurface designs. The final design will be based on Megrez-1 test results.
Great Bear will use the Nabors 105AC drilling rig or something similar.
Megrez The Megrez well, also in the Talitha unit, spud last November.
In a May 21 statement, Pantheon Resources, parent company of Great Bear, said two intervals were perforated in the Lower Sagavanirktok 3 formation at measured depths of 4,830-4,850 feet and 4,930-4,950 feet. Using nitrogen lift, production from Megrez was in excess of 2,000 barrels of liquid per day, "with no appreciable quantities of oil or gas recovered." Megrez was shut in May 20 and the company said it would be "suspended indefinitely pending further evaluation of the results to date."
Pantheon said Megrez results have no bearing on already discovered volumes of marketable liquids in the Ahpun and Kodiak projects.
The current well, Dubhe 1, is a "commercial demonstration well, located in the Ahpun field western topsets, to support the development case for Alaska LNG Phase 1 (pipeline)," Pantheon said.
Last June 4 Pantheon Resources said its wholly owned subsidiary, Great Bear Pantheon, signed a gas sales precedent agreement with Alaska Gasline Development Corp. subsidiary 8 Star Alaska.
Max Easley, Pantheon chief executive officer, commenting on Megrez in the May 21 statement, said: "It is disappointing that no mobile oil was discovered in the tested intervals despite observed reservoir properties prior to testing." He said focus now will be "on the development of the established Ahpun and Kodiak discovered resources, where we already have independently certified contingent resources of 1.57 billion barrels of marketable liquids (ANS Crude) 6.6 Trillion Cubic Feet of natural gas, and to achieve positive cash flow generation."
Dubhe Included in the Dubhe support facilities will be a satellite office camp with four-bed capacity for some personnel, with remaining personnel to be housed in Deadhorse and shuttled to the site as needed.
There will be 24-hour phone service and internet at the site with small temporary communications towers to be placed on the site.
The division said the plan addresses exploration activities for the Dubhe-1 well, but based on results, it anticipates that Great Bear may submit plans for additional wells at the Dubhe site or plans for development and production.
Dubhe is in the Talitha unit, which was formed in November 2020; it is south of Alkaid, Great Bear Pantheon's other unit.
The Talitha A well was drilled in 2021 offsetting ARCO Alaska's 1988 Pipeline State No. 1, which penetrated three formations, all confirmed oil bearing. The Theta West stepout was drilled in 2022.
--KRISTEN NELSON
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