In a Feb. 26 text Bill Armstrong updated Petroleum News on Lagniappe Alaska's eastern North Slope winter drilling program where the company is using three drilling rigs to simultaneously drill three exploration wells.
"Our drilling is just now starting," Armstrong wrote.
"Warm weather, then really windy weather has delayed our program a couple of weeks."
When asked whether Lagniappe would be able to finish all three wells Armstrong said yes.
This winter's mobilization delivered the Doyon 141 drilling rig to the King Street-1 well location, the Nabors 105-E rig to the Voodoo-1 site and the Doyon Arctic Fox rig to Sockeye-1.
Working interest owners in the program, which involves 270,000 acres approximately 40 miles east of Deadhorse and three miles south of the Badami unit. are Armstrong Oil & Gas's Lagniappe Alaska, Santos's Oil Search (Alaska) and APA Corp., the holding company for Apache Corp.
Operator Lagniappe and Oil Search each hold a 25% working interest in the leases; APA Alaska holds a 50% WIO (see related leasing story in this issue of Petroleum News).
Under the terms of the deal between the three WIOs, initial exploration activities during the two-year exploration phase will be undertaken without cost to Santos, which is concentrating on development of Pikka Phase 1 west of the central North Slope.
Six wells in 2 years
A Lease Plan of Operations for the Lagniappe Exploration Program was approved in mid-December by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas.
In a two-year consecutive exploration phase starting this winter, operator Lagniappe expects to drill three wells each year in the 148-lease block for a total of six wells.
Geologic targets
The lease block, Santos previously said, contains "multiple prospects in the late Cretaceous Brookian and Schrader Bluff formations."
On March 30, 2023, after Lagniappe had begun permitting for the area but prior to the three companies entering into a farm-in agreement, Bill Armstrong told Petroleum News in a text that the exploration wells will target Brookian objectives -- "Pikka look-a-likes that are defined off of high effort, reprocessed modern 3D. Really exciting stuff. Big targets."
There has been "virtually no prior drilling in the area. The wells that have been drilled have great shows and some have bypassed pay on old logs," Armstrong added.
44-mile ice road
The mid-December approval of Lagniappe's plans by the Division of Oil and Gas called for a 44-mile ice road to be constructed from Endicott Road for mobilization of the three drilling rigs.
A temporary staging/offload pad and a semi-circular turnout was also to be built along Endicott Road near the origin of the project ice road.
An ice bridge was also to be constructed near Deadhorse to cross the west fork of the Sagavanirktok River.
The drilling sites were to be ice pads measuring 600 feet by 600 feet or smaller. Temporary facilities were to include support and office camps, tanks, generators, maintenance shops, and other containers and connexes.
Next winter's plans
Also on the schedule for this winter per plans approved by the division is a Vertical Seismic Profile Survey.
Next winter's (2024-25) mobilization will follow a similar route to access the three remaining well locations.
Summer site inspection and cleanup is expected to be done from mid-June through mid-July.
State upbeat
Alaska Department of Natural Resources Commissioner John Boyle told the Alaska Legislature's Senate Finance Committee in January that there is a boom in investment on Alaska's North Slope with major projects, years in the making, underway.
He cited a stable and predictable climate for investment, the Slope's great rocks and technological advances as all playing a part in creating what he called a "very exciting trajectory."
At the end of DNR's 10-year forecast window, Boyle said, North Slope production is forecast at some 630,000 barrels of oil per day, up from today's average of some 480,000 bpd.
Where would much of that oil come from?
Boyle mentioned ConocoPhillips' Willow project, Santos's Pikka project and Lagniappe's exploration on the eastern North Slope.
Overall, Boyle said, DNR is "very optimistic" about the future of Alaska's North Slope.
