www.AKRDC.org 13 VOLUME 1 | ISSUE 3 | FALL 2024 has pushed up employment in the state’s employment and construction industries. Construction was up almost 15 percent in July and 13 percent in August, year-over-year, while oil and gas jobs were up about 7 percent in both months compared with the same periods of 2023. In other North Slope developments, there’s not a lot of information yet on three exploration wells drilled last winter east of Prudhoe Bay, in the eastern North Slope, by Armstrong Oil and Gas and Apache, its partner. Armstrong did tell Petroleum News that it found oil in two of the wells, but also that weather prevented completion of the third well. Presumably, that will be completed this winter, during which Armstrong also plans three more wells. No details were released on what Armstrong found earlier this year. Developments at two discoveries in the central North Slope south of Prudhoe Bay includes one by U.K.-based Pantheon Resources and a second by 88 Energy, an Australian explorer. Pantheon, working through its Alaska subsidiary Great Bear Petroleum, has been drilling and evaluating its “Ahpun” discovery for some time and is now working on permits for a “hot tap” connection to the Trans Alaska Pipeline System, which is nearby. If the project proceeds, the company will be working on its first four production wells and a water/gas injection well. An existing production facility used in a long-term flow test of the Alkaid 2 well will be upgraded to handle natural gas liquids, Pantheon said on its website. The oil Pantheon will produce is of a higher quality than the current crude oil moving through TAPS, so the effect will be to upgrade the overall value of TAPS throughput when the new oil is blended in. Pantheon expects to make a Final Investment Decision on its project in late 2025 or 2026, it said. 88 Energy is meanwhile still evaluating its Hickory 1 discovery well in the same area as Pantheon’s finds and also near TAPS and the Dalton Highway. Hickory 1 was drilled in early 2023, with flow tests conducted that spring from two reservoir intervals where oil was found. The company is now working on plans for a long-term production test. The oil found at Hickory 1 is also of high quality, similar to that discovered by Pantheon. In another development, Finnex Operating, now the owner of the small Mustang field, is expanding the operations pad by five acres to allow for new facilities. This signals intent by Finnex to move Mustang to production, Mustang is between the Kuparuk River and Alpine fields and is adjacent to a pipeline connecting the two larger fields, an advantage for Finnex. Mustang was discovered and partly developed by Brooks Range Petroleum, a small Alaska independent. Brooks Range hit financial difficulties when the state of Alaska reneged on promised exploration tax credit payments. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA, had helped Brooks Range in financing and had to foreclose on loans. AIDEA, the state development corporation, then sold Mustang to Finnex.
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