[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]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'b')ut then again EROEI doesn't matter does it?

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rockdoc123', 'F')irst 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.

[copious.abundance]

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

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilFinder2', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rockdoc123', 'F')irst 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.

[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]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 't')he state of Alaska is so anxious for more oil production they might fund the wells too..

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rockdoc123', 'n')ot 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.

[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
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]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]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'W')e had a scientific talk on this play here at the University of Alaska.

[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
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he 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]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilFinder2', '
')"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.

[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]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '
')
ANWR: Nine months of oil independence.