NPR-A exploration stymied: interior department obstructs progress.

• Author: Bradner, Mike
• Position: OIL & GAS

Exploration has been relatively quiet in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's final approval earlier this spring on a long-range land management program for the 23-million-acre reserve isn't going to speed things up.

The new plan sets aside over half the reserve for wildlife protection, including areas near NPR-A's northeast coast that are considered the most prospective for petroleum discoveries.

However, there are still companies working on projects. The sole active explorer in NPR-A this winter is Linc Energy, an Australian independent company that has acquired federal leases at Umiat, in the far southeast of NPR-A. Decades ago, in an early round of exploration in the reserve, the U.S. Navy found a shallow oil deposit at Umiat.

Linc Looking for Oil

Linc Energy thinks there could be a lot more oil than the Navy found and has brought a drill rig to Umiat this winter with plans to drill four to five wells. Bad weather, including some temperatures below negative 60 degrees Fahrenheit, hampered preparations for drilling, but the company hoped to have operations under way in early March.

Linc Energy is using the Kuukpik No. 5 rig, which was brought to Umiat from Deadhorse over a 100-mile snow road. Cruz Construction, a contractor, built the snow road, which was built off the Dalton Highway to Umiat from Pump Station 2, south of Deadhorse.

The initial well will test the shallow oil accumulation the Navy found, which is at about 2,000 feet. Subsequent drilling will go deeper to search for other oil that Linc Energy believes is there.

What is unique is that Umiat's oil, at least that produced by the Navy and tested, is very high quality, over 40 degrees API. In fact, its qualities were such that it was used as fuel in engines by the Navy without refining.

Those oil properties could be an advantage for Linc in building a pipeline to connect Umiat with the Trans Alaska Pipeline System because the high-API gravity oil will be able to flow through the pipeline to TAPS at cooler temperatures. Linc Energy has more than 100 people working on its project this winter, the company says.

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