[copious.abundance]

They've finally got a website, too!
http://www.greatbearpetro.com/

Map of their acreage:


With something like this, who needs ANWR!

[rockdoc123]

I am very familiar with the field in question....actually know the old wells. There is oil here but the rocks are extremely tight and hence will require fracing. That of course is not new technology but the challenges in this environment mean that getting to something that is economically extractable is going to be an extremely long haul. First of all this is in the NPRA and you can be darned sure that the Feds aren't going to allow willy nilly intense surface development which tight fields tend to require. Access to the area is restricted to a very, very short season from about January through late March as travel is only permitted on ice roads. Drilling costs are very, very high (well north of $50 MM per) and when you add on to that expensive frac completions then the challenge to reach economic limit becomes apparent. High cost of extraction plus limited access is likely to keep this oil in the ground for sometime even though it is almost certainly technically more extractable than much of the hydrocarbons being produced elsewhere.

[Quinny]

mmmm.....

Even the cornies don't seem to think much of this.

but then again EROEI doesn't matter does it?

[rockdoc123]

but then again EROEI doesn't matter does it?

as far as this resource becoming economic no it doesn't. What does matter is economics and the two are not the same.
Oil companies are not interested in EROEI....not in the least, they are however interested in economics and it is that which determines whether, when and where contingent resources (which is what these are ) become reserves.

[copious.abundance]

First of all this is in the NPRA and you can be darned sure that the Feds aren't going to allow willy nilly intense surface development which tight fields tend to require.

Apparently this is state of Alaska land, not federal land. From the article in the first post:

A newly formed Texas-based independent that recently acquired 537,000 acres of state of Alaska leases on the North Slope has plans to drill into source rocks below the region's prolific producing fields and produce oil by fracturing, a company official said Nov. 24.

[copious.abundance]

BTW, the link in the first article in the first post has expired. You can find the same article here.

[Plantagenet]

First of all this is in the NPRA and you can be darned sure that the Feds aren't going to allow willy nilly intense surface development which tight fields tend to require.

Apparently this is state of Alaska land, not federal land. .

[/quote]

the state of Alaska is so anxious for more oil production they might fund the wells too.......

[copious.abundance]

In today's news, Gear Bear just raised another $18 million to fund various items related to their newly acquired leases. Someone is definitely willing to invest in them.

On the front page of the latest issue of Petroleum News they had this chart showing the planned production profile for this project in relation to the rest of Alaskan production.

More production - without new discoveries!

[rockdoc123]

the state of Alaska is so anxious for more oil production they might fund the wells too..

not sure they can but I do need to point out the NPRA is managed by the BLM (federal) although income is shared with the state. Companies have to deal with both federal and state regulators.

As to raising $18 MM that is good news but I have to mention that to simply go in with a proper rig, re-enter one of these formerly drilled wells and complete it with a simple acid wash will cost about $40 MM due to mob/demob, ice road construction etc.

Not saying this won't happen someday but I can't see this as being economic anytime soon.

[copious.abundance]

not sure they can but I do need to point out the NPRA is managed by the BLM (federal) although income is shared with the state. Companies have to deal with both federal and state regulators.

This company's land isn't in the NPRA.

As to raising $18 MM that is good news but I have to mention that to simply go in with a proper rig, re-enter one of these formerly drilled wells and complete it with a simple acid wash will cost about $40 MM due to mob/demob, ice road construction etc.

As the article notes, this $18 million isn't for drilling purposes.

[copious.abundance]

But speaking of the NPRA, yesterday I found this map showing where the oil and gas windows of the Shublik Formation are located. Looks like a large chunk of the NPRA is underlain by the oil window of this formation.

The pic is slightly too big to show on the forum so click on the link:

>>> MAP <<<

[copious.abundance]

I'm beginning to think this thing has a chance of actually happening!

LINK

Halliburton, Great Bear team up in shale play on North Slope
HIGHWAY: Work over the next year will test project's concepts.
By KAY CASHMAN
Petroleum News
Published: November 6th, 2011 09:41 PM

Skeptics beware. If you thought Great Bear Petroleum's plan to drill 200 wells a year in its North Slope shale acreage was unrealistic, the world's second largest oil field service company thinks you're wrong.

Halliburton, an expert in extracting oil and gas from source rock in major resource plays outside Alaska, has partnered with Great Bear. In the next year Halliburton will conduct a parallel "proof of concept" multiwell program on Great Bear's acreage along the Dalton Highway -- at the same time Great Bear is executing a similar program to the south, along the highway. In the next year, each company plans to drill as many as three vertical wells and a lateral off each of those.

"We are partnering with Halliburton on an area-limited basis where they are bringing in world-class technology," Great Bear President and COO Ed Duncan told a special meeting of the Alaska Legislature's House Resources Committee on Nov. 1.

[...]

[Plantagenet]

We had a scientific talk on this play here at the University of Alaska. The geology and thermal window looks good----but the road access to these areas is currently very limited so only an extremely small area can be accessed. Much of this area is federal land, where protection of wildlife is a priority...unlike Prudhoe Bay where the state of Alaska controlled much of the surface acreage.

[Bruce_S]

We had a scientific talk on this play here at the University of Alaska.

You wouldn't happen to be referring to the one at Glenn Olds Hall, on October 25th would you?

[copious.abundance]

Finally a bit of news. The first well has been drilled, and though Great Bear hasn't provided details yet, they're encouraged.

Great Bear wants to speed up shale program

The results so far from a shale oil test well drilled by Great Bear Petroleum on Alaska's North Slope have met expectations for finding oil in source rocks, Ed Duncan, the company's president and CEO, told the Alaska Oil and Gas Congress last week.

"I can tell you with absolute confidence that where we thought we would find oil in these source rocks, we found oil," Duncan said. "To date, at least, the outcome has been very, very, very good," Duncan said.

Given the test results from its Alcor No. 1 well, Duncan said his permitting team is now working with the state on a change in plan, to potentially proceed with long-term production testing of the wells, in hopes of accelerating the company's shale oil development program.

There is still much work to do, "but we're working hard to bring the decision forward, for ourselves and for the state of Alaska, for regional development by as much as a year," Duncan said
.
That would move a decision on whether to proceed with a full-scale shale oil development from 2014 to the middle of 2013.
Great Bear is drilling its second test well, the Merak No. 1, next to the North Slope Haul Road.

[...]

[KingM]

"I can tell you with absolute confidence that where we thought we would find oil in these source rocks, we found oil," Duncan said. "To date, at least, the outcome has been very, very, very good," Duncan said.

I don't know about peak oil, but I hope we hit peak hyperbole as soon as possible.

[Plantagenet]

Good news for Alaska (and the US).

The TAPS pipeline flow was getting so low that it was hard to operate in the winter when temps hit -40 or so. If the new frakked oil site along the haul road can add some oil it will help keep the pipeline running until ANWR or Arctic Ocean oil comes on line in 10+ years.


Well I'll be frakked----there's oil in them thar hills!

[Plantagenet]

ANWR: Nine months of oil independence.

Your "nine months" estimate for production from ANWR is silly and your claim it would make the US energy independent is just plain wrong.

In the real world Oil fields are never drained all at once so the oil is all gone in nine months. Oil fields typically operate for decades. A large oil field like ANWR would probably be in production for 50-100 years.

The US oil supply doesn't even come from a single field like ANWR. Instead, we utilize hundreds of oil fields each supplying a small amount over time spans of decades. Because all oilfield peak and then have production declines, it is important to bring new oil fields on line to help replace the declining production of the older fields.

Get it now?