ConocoPhillips Alaska announced on Tuesday that the Greater Mooses Tooth #2 drill site in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) has achieved its first oil production under budget and on schedule on December 12. This is the second project in the Greater Mooses Tooth Unit, in the northeast NPR-A on the North slope and is located eight miles southwest of Greater Mooses Tooth #1. #2 is a satellite development of the Alpine field and is connected to the existing Alpine production center.
Ryan Lance, ConocoPhillips Chairman and CEO, in discussing bullishness over the next couple of years, was asked in September by Bloomberg Markets & Finance on his level of confidence of business in Alaska:
“This has been a 40-45-year track record in Alaska. We know that there’s some differences of opinion, but when you look at the operations at ConocoPhillips operating in Alaska, we’ve been there for nearly 50 years. We do it right in Alaska. It’s really important to this state, all our stakeholders are supportive and behind what we’re doing up there. A federal judge on the Willow Project asked a few questions. Those are remedies, there are solutions to those and we’re working through those, and we expect to work through those in a way that will satisfy the questions that the judge has and make for an even more robust permitting process that we’ve already been through on the projects that we’re developing up there. I remind people that we’ve got a project coming on at the end of this year called GMT2 in Alaska. We’ve reinstituted a number of rigs that are drilling up there. We’re still operating and still investing capital up there that’s very, very competitive in the portfolio.”
Permit applications for drilling at Greater Mooses Tooth #2 were submitted to the Bureau of Land Management in August 2015. The Bureau of Land Management Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement was completed with a Record of Decision issued on October 16, 2018. The BLM, Arctic Slope Regional Corporation and Kuukpik Corporation share land and mineral rights for the project.
GMT2 has a 14-acre drilling pad, an 8-mile gravel road, and pipeline facilities connected to the existing infrastructure. The pad is planned to have 36 wells initially, with capacity for up to 48 wells. Peak production is estimated to be at approximately 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and the project costs approximately $1.4 billion gross, including construction and drilling expenses. At peak production during the past three winter seasons, the project created about 700 jobs resulting in more than 600,000 direct construction manhours.
Photo credit – courtesy of KEEP Alaska Competitive Facebook page.
