Total’s NPR-A well hit 9,362 feet

Petroleum News

Information released by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in early April shows Total’s winter National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska exploration well, the Caribou 26-11 No. 1, was a vertical hole drilled to 9,362 feet. The well, on federal lease A084170, was in section 26, township 10 north, range 5 west, Umiat Meridian, in NPR-A on Alaska’s North Slope.

The commission said the completion date on the well is Feb. 25.

Total and its partner Fortuna Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Calgary-based Talisman Energy, drilled the rig with Nabors Alaska 14E, near the vicinity of the old Inigok test well.

Jack Bergeron, Alaska manager for Total E&P U.S.A., told committees of the Alaska Legislature in mid-February that because the Caribou prospect was “80-plus miles from the nearest road,” the company used rolligons to move the rig and equipment to the site to save the time it would have taken to build ice roads. The whole distance, he said, was 70 miles from Deadhorse to the end of the road, and then the 80 miles by rolligon.

Within NPR-A, the companies did build an ice road from the old Inigok test well, where there is a 5,000-foot gravel runway, so personnel and supplies could come in by air.

Bergeron told Petroleum News after drilling was completed that the well data would be analyzed in Houston. He said the well was “spud on Jan. 29 and drilled to its planned TD.”