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The Oil Patch Insider Last call for offshore ANWR well
As this edition of Petroleum News is headed to press the state contractor in charge of forming a consortium to drill a stratigraphic test well offshore the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is preparing to e-mail a ballot to all oil companies that expressed interest in participating in the project.
“It’s a check-the-box deal. You either check you will participate or you will not participate in the Beaufort Sea strat well,” John Lewis, vice president of operations for ASRC Energy Services E&P Technology, told Petroleum News in a June 23 interview.
For those companies that indicate they will participate, there are two more boxes asking them to select where they want the well drilled — either an eastern location, off Angun Point, 30 some miles southeast of Kaktovik, or a western site off Anderson Point in Camden Bay area, 20-plus miles southwest of Kaktovik. (The locations are on opposite sides of the Marsh Creek anticline.)
The results of the ballot “will determine whether DNR goes forward with the project or not,” Lewis said, referring to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas, the state agency in charge of the test well program for Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski.
Ballots must be returned to Lewis via e-mail by July 2.
In mid-May the division extended ASRC Energy Services’ contract to plan and promote the project from May 31 to June 30.
According to division geologist Jim Cowan, the deadline was extended because an April announcement that ASRC Energy Services E&P Technology “was also awarded a contract to initiate the permitting — and has done so — apparently did, as we hoped, stimulate additional interest” from large oil companies.”
Cowan, who is in charge of the project for the division, said the agency thought those companies “should be allowed a little additional time to evaluate the data in the areas” proposed for the test well.
He cautioned that “time is running short for those wishing to participate as original participants, however. It’s highly unlikely that additional extensions will be made if the well is to be drilled this coming winter,” as planned.
In evaluating options for the test well, Lewis said three scenarios have been identified: one, barge all equipment to location during the summer; construct the ice pad in shallow state water; two, fly all equipment in during winter season, construct the ice runway and ice pad in shallow state water, using a “Herc’able rig” and equipment; and, three, mobilize offshore rig (SDC) during the summer; drill at a location in 25-80 feet of state water.
Each scenario has it own strengths and hurdles, Lewis said.
The first two options require, to some degree, access to navigable waters within the 1002 area of ANWR. Option three would not require any access to the refuge.
Option one and three would require mobilization of equipment during the summer navigation season while option two would not commence operation until well into the winter season.
Lewis said his firm and the state had decided option three was the best alternative, largely because the first two options “require access to the navigable waters of the 1002 area and as such would require 18 months to two years to obtain necessary permits.”
The permitting process “appears to be proceeding and all required permits will be available for mobilization efforts that could start in late July 2004 if necessary,” he said.
Lewis can be reached at 907 339-6256 or via email at [email protected]. CAPP renovating Calgary office The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers is renovating its Calgary office space.
Work started June 18 and is expected to be completed by the end of August.
The association’s staff has temporarily moved to floors 26 and 27 in the same office tower at 350 7th Ave. S.W. World Bank to shift investment focus to gas from oil The World Bank, criticized by environmentalists for backing controversial oil pipelines, plans to shift more of its investment focus to natural gas projects.
According to recent wire reports, the bank will increase spending on gas projects over the next three to five years from the current 10 percent to 30-50 percent of all its equity investments, loans and guarantees for the oil and gas sector. Through its private sector investment arm the World Bank has a lending budget of approximately $1.5 billion for upstream, midstream and downstream projects around the world. Canadian to lead UN investigation of oil for food program A Canadian will lead a United Nations investigation into its controversial oil for food program in Iraq, according to a report in the Globe & Mail. There are allegations that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and others, skimmed more than $10 billion from the program while it was in operation.
Reid Morden, 63, ran the Canadian Security Intelligence Service from 1987 to 1991, and was also Canada’s deputy foreign minister in the mid-1990s.
“I think it’s potentially important for the UN to either learn some lessons or to have the names of a number of people cleared — one of the two,” Morden told The Globe. U.S. officials believe Hussein pocketed $5.7 billion smuggling oil into neighboring countries, and another $4.4 billion extracting illicit surcharges and kickbacks on otherwise legitimate contracts.
Established to ease the effects of sanctions on Iraq imposed after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the oil for food program was a $67 billion boondoggle that saw very little in the way of food or aid delivered to Iraqi citizens.The probe into the allegations of corruption and fraud in the $67 billion program was ordered by the Security Council after the Iraqi Oil Ministry released documents in January listing more than 200 individuals and agencies that allegedly received kickbacks under the program.
The director of the UN’s Office of Iraq Programs and a company tied to the son of Secretary General Kofi Annan both show up on a list of suspects. Both have denied any wrongdoing. Dave Shafer takes Gil Mull’s position with state Late last year veteran geologist Charles G. (Gil) Mull retired from the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas. With his vast knowledge of Alaska geology, Mull had become something of an institution since he first arrived in the state in 1961, part of the team that discovered the giant Prudhoe Bay oil field.
Mull and his wife Yvonne are now living in Santa Fe, N.M., where he is doing Alaska-related geological consulting.
Dave Shafer has taken Mull’s position with the division in Anchorage. Shafer brings to the position 23 years of experience as a petroleum geologist, in development planning, operations and exploration, as well as a strong background in horizontal well planning. He has interpretative and operational experience with clastic and carbonate reservoirs in California, the Gulf of Mexico, Texas, Alaska, Trinidad, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Algeria. And experience in well logging, project management and databases.
Like Mull, he’s a good writer and communicator, with an eye for the larger picture and creative solutions. And, like Mull, you can expect work-related e-mails from him seven days a week, at all hours.
Shafer began working for the division in January where his job scope has included leading the investigations of the petroleum potential of Alaska’s sedimentary basins; planning and implementing the 2004 North Slope field studies in collaboration with the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys and the University of Alaska Fairbanks; implementing investigations of the Alaska Peninsula lease sale area; and consolidating all of the prior North Slope studies into summary posters.
Editor’s note: This week’s column was compiled by Kay Cashman and Don Whiteley. Insider tips should be emailed to [email protected].
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