Spartan 151 loaded {Jack-up drill rig headed for Cook Inlet gas exploration}

Petroleum News ^ | Week of March 20, 2011 | Eric Lidji

[thackney]

Escopeta Oil has loaded the Spartan 151 jack-up rig onto a heavy lift vessel at a dock in Freeport, Texas. The vessel is scheduled to set sail on Friday, March 18, Escopeta President Danny Davis told Petroleum News March 17 as this edition went to press.

It will be the first time in more than a decade that a jack-up rig is headed to Alaska. But Escopeta must overcome a few more hurdles before it can begin its exploration campaign in upper Cook Inlet.

The ship will sail around the tip of South America on its way to Cook Inlet. Once the jack-up is unloaded, it must be outfitted with additional equipment before it can begin drilling.

On March 9, two officials from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission flew to Texas to inspect the Spartan 151 but, as expected, said they needed to inspect it again after it arrives in Alaska and blowout prevention equipment is installed and tested.

In February, Davis announced Escopeta was purchasing a 15,000-pound blowout preventer to use on the Spartan 151, a major step-up in the equipment previously used on the rig in the Gulf of Mexico — and the largest blowout preventer ever employed in Cook Inlet.

The blowout preventer and all of its components added an additional $1.5 million to the cost of the program, Davis said at the time, noting it would be installed in Alaska.

He notified AOGCC the rig wouldn’t be fully assembled until it arrived in the state, which was acknowledged in a Feb. 25 letter from AOGCC to Davis, deferring inspection until the Spartan 151 was in Alaska.

Nonetheless, the preliminary inspection was made by AOGCC on March 9, at Davis’ invitation.

“At the time of inspection, Spartan 151 was undergoing modifications for Alaska operations,” Commissioners John Norman and Cathy Foerster told Davis in a March 16 letter following the first inspection. “Key well blowout control equipment was missing from the rig. Commission representatives were advised that the missing equipment would be installed on the drilling unit when it arrives in Alaska. As such, a complete inspection of Spartan 151 was not possible.”

Under an agreement with the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas, Escopeta must have the rig bound for Alaska by March 30 and must start drilling its first well by Oct. 31.

The company wants to drill Kitchen Lights, an offshore unit in the upper Cook Inlet.

Escopeta is one of two independent oil companies looking to bring a jack-up rig to the Cook Inlet. Buccaneer Alaska is working on a financing plan with the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority and should have a deal ready for AIDEA board review soon.

[thackney]

Article also in the Anchorage Daily News.

Jack-up drill rig headed for Cook Inlet gas exploration
http://www.adn.com/2011/03/19/1765557/jack-up-drill-rig-headed-for-cook.html

[redhead]

This is excellent news! It’s ironic that Alaska sits on the largest natural gas deposits in this hemisphere, yet we are all on tenterhooks because production has dwindled here to historically low levels, and we are scrambling to find enough gas in production to meet existing and projected local needs, as you no doubt already know. It will be interesting to see how long it takes the current resident and his flying monkeys to try to shut this down.

[knarf]

"The ship will attempt to sail around the tip of South America on its way to Cook Inlet ... but Brazilian forces are expected to waylay her in her path."

[Red_Devil 232]

 

Two independent companies are in a race to get a jack-up rig to Cook Inlet this summer. The winner qualifies for 80 percent to 100 percent of the first three wells being paid for by the state, with a limit of $25 million for the first well.

It’s an either-or deal. Whichever gets here first and gets its well down gets the money. The incentive is offered through a bill the Legislature passed earlier this year, in which the state will pay a major percentage of the cost of the first three wells drilled by the first rig to get to Cook Inlet.

One contender is Escopeta Oil and Gas, a small Houston-based company that holds Cook Inlet offshore leases and has been working to get a jack-up rig to the inlet for several years. Escopeta has contracted with Spartan Offshore Drilling of Metairie, La., to bring the Spartan Rig 151 north to Alaska.

Also in the race is Buccaneer Alaska, a subsidiary of an Australian company of the same name, which has formed a separate company, Kenai Ventures LLC, to purchase a jack-up rig in Asia and bring it to Cook Inlet, where the rig would be stationed.

[the invisib1e hand]

Hope it has evironazi protection.

[oilfieldtrash]

Must be water depths of 100 feet or less. Otherwise they could get a semi in.

[thackney]

Spartan 151 is rated for water depth of 150 foot.

http://rigzone.com/data/rig_detail.asp?rig_id=828

[thackney]

Cook Inlet Oil and Gas Activity 2010- 2011 {Map}
http://www.dog.dnr.alaska.gov/oil/products/maps/cookinlet/2011/CI_OGActivityMap_20110111.pdf

[thackney]

Cook Inlet Unit Land and Lease Working Interest Ownership {Map}
http://www.dog.dnr.alaska.gov/oil/products/maps/cookinlet/2011/CI_Unit%20_Ownership_28X44_0111_ai.pdf