|
Great Bear begins permitting for 2 pads
Company, acquired by Pantheon last year, is working along the Dalton Highway; pads would be in area where it has drilled 4 wells Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
Great Bear Petroleum Operating has begun permitting for two pads along the Dalton Highway with a major amendment application for its oil discharge prevention and contingency plan.
Pantheon Resources, listed on the AIM Stock Exchange, a sub-market of the London Stock Exchanges, acquired Great Bear last year. The oil discharge prevention and contingency plan was approved under the Great Bear Petroleum Operating name in early 2017.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said in an April 17 public notice that the company’s existing plan addresses year-round exploration drilling from sites approved for all season drilling and winter-only exploration drilling from ice pads connected to North Slope infrastructure via the Dalton Highway and ice roads.
The major amendment the company has submitted would add two new locations to the plan - the Alkaid and Phecda road pads, as well as updating maps and figures and updating response planning standards to increase oil storage tank capacity from 400 barrels to 600 barrels and to increase the summer drilling response planning standards from 1,000 barrels per day to 5,500 bpd for 15 days, totaling 82,500 barrels.
There is no date given for pad construction. The public comment on the plan amendment ends May 18.
Existing wells The company has drilled four wells off the Dalton highway - three are plugged and abandoned (Alcor 1, Merak 1 and Winx 1) and one well - Alkaid 1 - is suspended. The Alcor and Merak wells were drilled in 2012, Alkaid was drilled in 2015 and re-entered and flow tested in 2019; Winx was drilled in 2019.
A map accompanying the application shows the general location of the proposed pads along the Dalton Highway, as well as locations of three of the existing wells - Alcor, Merak and Alkaid - and one well location, for Mizar, which is neither permitted nor drilled.
From north to south, along the Dalton Highway, the map shows: the Alcor well site, the Alkaid Road Pad site, the Merak well site, the Phecda Road Pad site and the Mizar well site.
The company said the pads would be constructed of timber rig mats, “in some cases supplemented with existing gravel pads.” The pads would be 400 by 400 feet and would support all season drilling.
The suspended Alkaid well is some two and a half miles west of the Dalton Highway and northwest of the Phecda Road Pad site. That well was drilled from an ice pad.
Pantheon said after the well was flow tested in 2019 that it confirmed a new Brookian light oil discovery just west of the Dalton Highway. The company also said it viewed the nearby Phecda prospect as an appraisal well for the Alkaid discovery, rather than a standalone well.
| 