Great Bear continues data analysis

Little has been heard from Great Bear Petroleum since its initial drilling program came to an end on Alaska’s North Slope in late 2012. The company is exploring the possibility of oil production from North Slope oil source rocks and in 2012 drilled two test wells next to the Haul Road, south of Prudhoe Bay. The company said that it had taken rock cores from the wells for laboratory testing and that it had found oil in the source rocks, as anticipated.

To progress its source-rock oil production concept, the company needs to test the rock samples, to determine the rock’s suitability for the hydraulic fracturing procedures that would be needed for oil production. It will also presumably be necessary to drill and frack some horizontal wells for productions tests.

“The technical analysis of the well data and whole core samples continues to advance,” Patrick Galvin, Great Bear’s vice president for external affairs and deputy general counsel, told Petroleum News in an April 5 email. Galvin said that Ed Duncan, Great Bear’s president, is working with the company’s technical team to complete the analysis.

In December Duncan told the Alaska Geological Society the laboratory work was taking longer than anticipated.

Galvin confirmed that a new 3-D seismic survey that Great Bear planned to conduct in its leases this winter is in progress.

“We have not yet determined our activities for the rest of the year,” Galvin said. “When the technical analysis of our drilling results is complete, bolstered with the 3-D seismic data, we will be in a strong position to determine the next steps in our exploration program.”

—Alan Bailey