Pioneer to drill Cronus exploration well this winter

Pioneer Natural Resources filed a plan of operations with the State of Alaska to drill the Cronus No. 1 exploration well this winter in the newly approved 11,343-acre North Slope Cronus unit.

Unit operatorship is being transferred from ConocoPhillips to Pioneer, which is farming into the two-lease unit.

In August when ConocoPhillips filed its Cronus unit application it was the sole owner of the leases, but has subsequently entered into the deal with Pioneer and also assigned 30 percent of its working interest to AVCG.

The leases were originally part of the larger Southeast Delta exploration unit, dissolved in 2003 when ConocoPhillips elected not to drill the Cronus well.

The proposed Cronus target is Albian-aged submarine fan turbidite sands in the Torok formation, correlative to the section in the Nanuk No. 1 well 16 miles to the northwest. Cronus No. 1 will be drilled from a 500 foot by 500 foot ice pad on state leases east of the Colville River about 30 miles south of the Beaufort Sea (section 8, township 8N, range 6E, Umiat Meridian).

Access to the ice pad will be via an 8-10 mile ice road that travels west from existing facilities at the ConocoPhillips-operated Kuparuk River production unit, Drill Site 2P (Meltwater).

Pioneer said ice road construction would begin as early as Nov. 1, pending land use and tundra travel permit approvals. The well is expected to be plugged an abandoned by May 1.

Pioneer expects to use its new Arctic Fox No. 1 rig for the project.

—Kay Cashman