By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Oct. 5 -- Devon Energy Corp., Oklahoma City, plans to drill during the 2005-06 winter the first well in the Canadian Beaufort Sea in 15 years.
Devon has completed a multiyear 3D seismic survey that has identified several preliminary drilling targets and is in the process of applying for a drilling program and a drilling permit from the Canadian National Energy Board (OGJ, Nov. 3, 2003, p. 42).
The planned Paktoa well, which will cost $55-60 million (Can.), is the first of four wells Devon is obligated to drill by August 2009.
Paktoa will be drilled to 2,500 m in about 40 ft of water starting late December. It will test the Tertiary Kugmallit and Taglu 1 through 3 sands.
Gas from a sizable find could supplement supply to the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, which will run from Inuvik to Norman Wells in the Northwest Territories. The Mackenzie line, at a cost of $5.6 billion, could bring up to 1.9 bcfd of arctic gas to market by 2010.
