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Anadarko believes in Alaska, company president tells RDC John Seitz tells the Resource Development Council the company brings aggressive exploration style to state Kristen Nelson PNA News Editor
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has made discoveries where other companies have tried and failed, said John Seitz, the company’s president and chief operating officer. Speaking to the Resource Development Council for Alaska’s 20th annual conference in Anchorage Nov. 18, Seitz said that Anadarko, one of the largest oil and gas exploration-production companies in the world, is a maverick — a company that tends to wander away from the herd of other oil and gas companies. The company, he said, is willing to take oil and gas exploration risks.
“Our company’s history is full of examples of how we bucked conventional wisdom. We’re not always right,” he said, “we’re wrong plenty of times, but I wouldn’t care to bet against this company.”
“A lot of people,” Seitz said, “thought we were nuts when we started talking about going into Algeria: the desert, they said, the politics, the failed exploration by others.” Twelve discoveries and more than 2 billion barrels of oil later, he said, “they’re not laughing anymore.”
“And some said the same things about when we came to the state of Alaska: the Arctic; the politics; the failed exploration by others.
“Well, I think we’ve proved them wrong again.”
Alaska research dating back to 1980s Anadarko looked very hard at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the 1980s, Seitz said. “We were convinced that a number of world-class fields were left to be found in the state.”
But, he said, there were roadblocks for an independent wanting to do business in Alaska: permitting delays; long lead times for development; little access to prospective acreage; high operating costs; logistical challenges.
The state — the governor, the Legislature and the Congressional delegation — also recognized those problems, Seitz said, adopted an ‘open for business’ attitude and made more acreage available through areawide leasing and exploration licensing.
“We’ve taken advantage of that opportunity by building a significant portfolio of exploration prospects in the state.”
Partnership with ARCO In 1996, Anadarko signed an agreement with ARCO covering 127,000 acres in Cook Inlet; the companies jointly won 39,000 in a Cook Inlet lease sale. Seismic was shot in 1997 and in 1998 Anadarko was the operator of the Moquawkie Lone Creek No. 1 gas discovery well, spud in June of 1998.
On the North Slope, Anadarko is a partner with ARCO in the Alpine field, where reserves were recently increased from 365 million to 429 million barrels; that field is scheduled to come online in mid-2000.
Anadarko was also a partner with ARCO in the Fiord discovery, which could become the first Alpine satellite field.
Arctic Slope Regional Corp. partnership Anadarko also has a partnership agreement with the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. and is exploring more than 3 million acres in the Brooks Range foothills.
Seitz characterized the company’s work on ASRC land as “a slightly longer range opportunity.”
“At Anadarko, we like to apply new exploration technology to areas that have been ignored for years.”
“At Anadarko,” Seitz said, “we’re excited about the potential in Alaska. From Cook Inlet to the North Slope we see great opportunities in the state to make new discoveries.”
ASRC still a data game “We’ve been gathering a lot of data on the ASRC lands,” Mark Hanley, Anadarko’s Alaska spokesman, told PNA. “So we’re actually gathering all the old data, (including that on) some wells that have been drilled. So we’re trying to acquire any information we can get. We’re putting together our own models of the whole North Slope, but particularly the foothills where ASRC has their acreage. And then we’re eventually going to use all of that.
“We did a field survey, a very small field survey, this summer. We’ll probably do another one. And eventually, what our goal is, is to put together that information and figure out where we want to do some seismic.
“And that won’t be this winter.”
The seismic, Hanley said, is probably a couple of years away. Depending on what the seismic shows, he said, they might do more seismic or maybe you can drill.
“But,” he said, “we’re a few years away from any drilling on lands at ASRC. But we’re working constantly on that.”
Money being spent in Alaska is mostly Anadarko’s share of Alpine development work, more than $200 million, Hanley said. On ASRC lands right now, expenditures are for acquisition and processing of data. “We are hoping to be able to drill in a few years on ASRC acreage,” Hanley said.
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