Pioneer expands Alaska acreage position

Jan. 18, 2005
Pioneer Natural Resources Co., Dallas, is expanding its portfolio of undeveloped lands on the Alaska North Slope to more than 1.6 million gross acres.

By OGJ editors

HOUSTON, Jan. 17 -- Pioneer Natural Resources Co., Dallas, is expanding its portfolio of undeveloped lands on the Alaska North Slope to more than 1.6 million gross acres.

The company plans $50 million in spending this year to develop a core division in Alaska, where the recent agreements give the company the state's third largest net acreage position.

Pioneer signed an exploration agreement with ConocoPhillips and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. that expands Pioneer's position in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska Northeast Planning Area by 452,000 acres. Pioneer's interest in the new spread is 20%. Pioneer also got rights to extensive seismic and geologic data.

Another agreement with the two companies in 2004 gave Pioneer 20% interest in 167,000 acres in the Northeast Planning Area and adjacent federal waters. Pioneer also acquired 20-30% in 808,000 acres at a lease sale.

The acquired lands "could provide a bridge [from infrastructure] to our large holdings in the northwest (NPR-A)," the company said.

A Pioneer-operated group targets first oil in 2008 from the 53,000-acre Oooguruk Unit in the Beaufort Sea, where it drilled three discovery wells in 2003. After evaluating the unit's potential in late 2004, Pioneer has committed $5 million to front-end engineering and permitting in 2005 and, if successful, will seek development approval next year.

The company will drill two wells in the 2005-06 winter on the Pioneer operated, 6,000-acre Gwydyr Bay Unit northwest of supergiant Prudhoe Bay field to commercialize several small oil discoveries and tie them back to Prudhoe Bay infrastructure in 2006.

Pioneer will participate with 40% working interest in an exploration well in the first half of 2005 on the 14,000-acre Tuvaaq prospect northeast of the Oooguruk Unit. It is running a 3D seismic survey on the Pioneer-operated, 130,000 acre Storms Lead Area adjacent to the Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk River units and could begin exploration drilling as early as the first quarter of 2006.

The company anticipates that two exploration wells will be drilled by the end of March 2005 on the 1.4 million acres in NPR-A in which Pioneer holds 20-30% interest.