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Oil Patch Insider
Alaska exploration tax credit bill to be signed soon The Alaska governor’s office expects a signing ceremony for Senate Bill 185 to be scheduled in the first half of June, Joe Brenckle told Petroleum News May 27. Brenckle is with the Murkowski administration’s press office in Juneau.
“As we get closer, we should be able to close in on a solid date,” he said.
Among other things, SB 185 establishes a tax credit program designed to encourage exploration drilling and seismic statewide. Good news, and bad, from Andex Resources James B. Dodson, executive vice president of Houston-based Andex Resources, left the company at the end of March to take a position with Clearflame Resources in Denver.
Based in Andex’s Denver office, Dodson was in charge of the company’s Alaska properties, including its Nenana natural gas project.
Bob Mason, who worked with Dodson at Andex, said Dodson will be missed.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that Mason said the exploration tax credit program passed in May by the Alaska Legislature could be an asset in Andex’s search for a partner, or partners, for its Nenana Basin natural gas project.
“Industry is very adverse right now to frontier exploration (investments). Obviously, that’s a bill that is critically important to what we’re doing,” Mason said May 27.
“We have a 2-D seismic program planned for next winter at Nenana,” but additional capital from a partner might allow Andex to shoot 3-D seismic next winter, he said.
Andex, which has several prospects in the Gulf of Mexico, South Louisiana, South Texas and Wyoming, is currently focusing its hunt for gas in Alaska on its 530,000 acres in the Nenana sedimentary basin in the Interior part of the state where the company expects to find enough natural gas to meet the energy needs of Fairbanks and other rail belt locations.
Andex first came to Alaska to participate in BP Exploration (Alaska)’s West Gwydyr exploration project on the North Slope. That well, the West Gwydyr No.1, was drilled, then plugged and abandoned in the winter of 2000, but Andex stayed in the state. Bill Van Dyke, Gordon Pospisil receive SPE awards Two Alaska petroleum engineers, Bill Van Dyke and Gordon Pospisil, were presented Society of Petroleum Engineers Regional Service Awards at the annual SPE Western Region Meeting held the week of May 19 in Long Beach, Calif.
The awards, presented by Kate Baker, the 2004 SPE International president elect, were for dedicated long-term service to SPE.
Van Dyke works for the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas and Pospisil works for BP Exploration (Alaska).
EnCana rolls out the wooden mat EnCana is using a low-tech solution to a high-end project as it moves into the Greater Sierra natural gas play of northeastern British Columbia.
By laying wooden mats over what is otherwise a swampland, the Canadian independent says it can plan for year-round work on the potential 5 trillion cubic foot play. The mats have been leased and, in some cases, purchased from International Mat of Canada and Mighty Mats of Fort Nelson, B.C.
By laying about 30,000 wooden mats on access roads and the drill sites, EnCana hopes to complete 50 to 60 wells this summer.
The company will also be able to avoid the frenzy that accompanies the three-month winter drilling season — until now the only period of the year when the ground is hard enough to support rigs and other heavy equipment.
Greater Sierra, where the company quietly assembled 2.24 million acres, is already pumping 210 million cubic feet per day and is targeted for 300 million in 2005, or between 15 percent and 25 percent of EnCana’s total output.
Chief operating officer Randy Eresman said the economics of summer drilling are more attractive because there is less competition for equipment and workers.
I think that over the next couple of years as we increase our infrastructure we can imagine a proportionally larger summer program,” he said. Jeanette Aileen joins PSI in Anchorage New to PSI Environmental & Instrumentation in Anchorage is Jeanette Aileen, who recently joined the firm as supervisor of instrumentation.
She was formerly an instrument technician for Chugach Development Corp. and spent a decade as an aircraft electrician in the Air National Guard, primarily working in Search and Rescue. Jeanette, a 12-year Alaskan, will focus on managing the sales, rental and service shops in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Soldotna.
PSI provides gas detection equipment and supplies and carries portable and fixed systems for purchase or rent.
Oil Patch Insider is compiled by Paula Easley and Kay Cashman with news coming from a variety of sources, including news tips and press releases from readers. Petroleum News writers in Anchorage, Calgary, Fairbanks, Houston and Washington, D.C. also supply news leads and briefs. If you have a news tip or press release for Oil Patch Insider, please email [email protected], phone (907) 522-9469, or fax (907) 522-9583.
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