Next year, in November 2013, Petroleum News is replacing The Explorers with The Producers, a magazine that will carry the same subtitle, “Oil & gas companies investing in Alaska’s future,” but focus on companies that operate producing fields in the state.
The magazines will alternate year-to-year, with The Explorers making a return appearance in November 2014.
Some of the companies featured will be the same, as several are both explorers and producers, but there will be no crossovers such as articles on “looking for new oil in old places.”
In addition to The Producers, two other new full-color magazines will debut in 2013: A history of Shell in Alaska from Petroleum News, and The Bakken Explorers from Petroleum News Bakken.
A schedule for the Shell magazine is being worked out as we pen this editorial.
The Bakken Explorers will be released in May at the 21st Annual Williston Basin Petroleum Conference.
The biggest exploration news from Alaska: After six years of battling political and logistical obstacles, Shell is finally drilling in the federal outer continental shelf, or OCS, of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas off northern Alaska.
The company is drilling top holes, bringing the drill bit down to depths of 1,400 to 1,500 feet, some distance above any hydrocarbon zones. The idea is to save a significant amount of time in subsequent drilling seasons.
In the Chukchi, three top holes are expected to be completed this fall (2012) for Burger A, J and B wells. In the Beaufort, where a different drilling unit is being used, one top hole each is being drilled in the Sivulliq and Torpedo prospects.
In the Cook Inlet basin of Southcentral Alaska there are two jack-up rigs for the first time in almost 20 years: one is drilling its second well. Onshore several companies are pursuing natural gas and oil prospects.
Onshore and nearshore the North Slope explorers are looking at a relatively busy winter 2012-13 season:
• Brooks Range Petroleum — Plans one delineation well and one or two sidetracks offsetting its Tofkat No.1 Kuparuk discovery, as well as the possibility of one or two exploration wells in the company’s undeveloped Kachemach unit.
• ConocoPhillips — Has filed permits to drill two wells in its Bear Tooth unit in NPR-A.
• Linc Energy — Plans to drill five wells, including one disposal well, at the Umiat field on the NPR-A border.
• Pioneer Natural Resources — One of Pioneer’s Nuna appraisal wells for the 2012-13 season, the Nuna No. 2, is an exploratory well.
• Repsol — Plans to complete the five-prospect drilling program it began in the winter of 2011-12, when Repsol drilled two prospects. Using three rigs the company expects to get at least one vertical well drilled at Qugruk 1, Q6 and Q3 ice pads. Q-1 and Q-6 will have horizontal sidetracks. Q-3 will have a geologic sidetrack.
• UltraStar Exploration — Looking to drill the North Dewline No. 1 well.
And finally, there is Great Bear, which is pioneering the possibility of oil production on the North Slope using the hydraulic fracturing techniques in source rocks that have proved successful elsewhere. Unlike other North Slope explorers, it is able to drill year-round because its six well locations are in a transportation corridor. As of Oct. 15, 2012, the company has drilled two test holes and is pleased with the results.
