ConocoPhillips Co. has staked nine wells in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
ConocoPhillips staked the Flattop No. 1 and No. 2 well locations in the Mooses Tooth unit and the Cassin No. 1, 3, 3A, 5, 6, 8 and 8A well locations in the Bear Tooth unit.
The notices, published by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in September, show where ConocoPhillips is interested in drilling and how many wells it might drill. But because ConocoPhillips must approve drilling plans internally and with its partner Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and because the company must also get state and federal permits before beginning any work, the notices are not a measure of actual drilling plans.
“We have not announced any firm plans for NPR-A exploration,” ConocoPhillips told Petroleum News on Oct. 3. “Filing notice of staking (NOS) forms is a routine action to provide flexibility as we evaluate and try to obtain regulatory approvals for possible activity in those areas, but it is not a given that anything will move forward.”
The nine locations target prospects ConocoPhillips eyed in previous drilling programs.
In the environmental assessment for its 2006-11 drilling program in NPR-A, ConocoPhillips staked three Cassin well locations. And ConocoPhillips included one Cassin location in its 2007-12 program but never actually drilled any of those wells.
Bear Tooth unit
Since then, ConocoPhillips formed the Bear Tooth unit around the Cassin area leases.
The Bear Tooth unit sits to the southeast of Teshekpuk Lake.
The Bear Tooth unit agreement, approved in 2009, required ConocoPhillips to drill a well in Unit Area A by June 1, 2012, to evaluate the sandstone encountered in the West Fish Creek No. 1 well. Unit Area A includes the seven recently staked Cassin well locations.
The agreement also required ConocoPhillips to test the Scout No. 1 well by June 1, 2012.
In June 2011, BLM granted a one-year extension to those deadlines, the federal agency told Petroleum News. BLM granted the request because ConocoPhillips showed “diligence” in evaluating the area, including drilling the Scout No. 1 well, reprocessing seismic information in 2009 and refining hydrocarbon prospects in 2010.
ConocoPhillips “has established that producible hydrocarbons have been encountered in the Scout No. 1 well sufficient to demonstrate that a prudent operator would maintain the lease for future development,” the BLM wrote in its decision to extend the unit terms.
